How India has become a target market for European casino operators

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This is a guest contribution by Dinesh Rhana of luckydice.in.

The online world has taken casino gaming for a trip around the world. In days gone by, casino type games and in some places casino halls, have served us well, but now many head online for their fix.

When you play online, you could be playing alongside people from the other side of the world, you could even be playing with a casino operator on the other side of the world, this is a global industry.

Inside of this, companies target specific areas with their service, and tailor it towards them. The biggest online area for this has always been Europe, we have many European operators and huge numbers of players in the region, so naturally the operators kept things close to home and promoted to locals.

Now we are seeing a shift, not completely, but certainly a noticeable one. European casino operators are now focusing their attention on other parts of the world and one of those they are targeting is India. Luckydice.in is an Indian online casino guide which shows players where the best deals are to be found. Many of these deals are now coming from European operators who are allowing Indians to play with them.

The Untapped Potential of the Indian Market

One of the reasons why much of the attention that has gone elsewhere has focused on India is because of the untapped potential of the country. This is an area that doesn’t have a huge history with gambling, but it is closely tied to casino style games, and of course it is a huge sporting country too.

Games such as Andar Bahar and Teen Patti have been played for many years in India, with younger people in the country being taught the rules and how to play by their elder relatives. Games are played on the streets between people, but now this game is beginning to make its mark online.

With casinos offering this game, and others that are associated with Asia and India in particular, there is the hope that Indian players are going to begin reading the latest casino news and take their playing online. With few options at the moment, the race is now on for companies from Europe to offer their services and pick up as many customers as they can.

Regulations in Europe

One of the reasons why we are seeing online casino companies move away from Europe and onto other areas is because of the regulations that are in place in some parts of Europe. There are selected countries, such as the UK and Sweden, where operators need a specific license to offer gaming to players from that area.

The regulations in place here are strict, and companies are constantly evolving so that they can comply with what is asked of them. Elsewhere around the world, for the time being anyway, things are not as strict, and more relaxed so that operators can move into the market and pick up customers.

There is every chance that other countries in Europe will move towards a similar approach to what we have seen from the UK and Sweden, and if that is the case then we could see more operators moving away from Europe.

The Future

It seems inevitable that operators will continue to target the Indian market and pick up new customers from the region. Eventually, if this continues, we will likely see India create and implement new gambling laws in the country, something that companies will have to deal with and adhere to.

However, assuming things are not too strict, expect a real surge of business looking to claim Indian players. This is a huge market, and although the history of gambling in the country isn’t as big as elsewhere, the country does have an affinity with sports and casino-style games.

Any rules that come into place would likely cover advertising in the country, so it may not be too long before we see casino logos on the shirts of IPL teams such as the Mumbai Indians, it is the biggest cricket league in the world and the biggest sport in India.

With an industry as competitive as the online casino industry, companies are always trying to find new areas to discover, new ways to attract players and something that will help them stand out from the crowd.

In terms of the first point, new areas to discover, India has already been discovered, but it may be about to get swamped by European casino operators in the very near future.

About the Author:

Dinesh Rhana is a senior researcher and content writer at luckydice.in