A few days before the Indian Premier League 2025 (IPL 2025) auction, former Supreme Court Justice Vikramjit Sen remarked that betting huge sums of money on cricketers in the auction was like ‘gambling’. He said, “When you look at auctioning cricketers, it is a form of gambling. You don’t know how they will play, only some statistics are given, and then you bet huge sums. If that’s not gambling, what is?”
Bikramjit Sen spoke at the launch of the book ‘Online Gaming in India—Technology, Policy and Challenges’ at the India International Center on Tuesday. The book is published by the Taylor & Francis Group and co-edited by Professor Lovely Dasgupta and Shamik Sen of the West Bengal National University of Judicial Sciences.
Vikramjit Sen also said at the book launch that the growing online gaming industry faces several challenges. One of those challenges is taxation and the lack of distinction between games of chance and games of skill. Many game operators who are involved in popular games like cricket use this problem for their gain.
The IPL 2025 auction will be held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on November 24 and 25. This will be the second time that the auction is being held outside India. The 2024 IPL auction was also held in Dubai. Players will be selected for more than 200 slots in this auction, and 70 foreign players can be bought. However, the IPL auctions also have some controversies, especially in the case of big bets.
It is a known fact that those who fetched the most money in the IPL auctions often did not perform well on the field. For example, even though players like Yuvraj Singh, Chris Morris, Ben Stokes, and Mitchell Starc have bagged big sums, their performances have never been up to par.
Vikramjit Sen said, “It’s a gamble, where you don’t know how a player will play. Here you are asked to spend a lot of money based on statistics. If this is not gambling, what is?”
The online gaming industry is one of the fastest-growing sectors in India. By 2025, the industry’s revenue is forecast to reach around INR 231 billion, a growth of around 20 percent. India is currently the world’s second-largest online gaming market, with 550 million gamers.
However, no clear regulations have been made by the government to control this market. Many gaming operators in the country currently operate online gaming without distinguishing between games of chance and games of skill as per their business policies. It also has increased legal complications and high levels of addiction.
Speaking at the event, Additional Solicitor General of India Vikramjit Banerjee said, “India has now become a kind of ‘Wild West’ where there are no rules. What we are seeing is that there are no clear rules for regulation and corporate interests are sometimes seeking less regulation than the rules.”
Besides, Vikramjit Sen said, “Most of the people who join online gaming these days end up getting addicted to the game and get into legal trouble. This is an important issue, that the gaming industry in India cannot solve.”
The relationship between the IPL and the gaming industry is now very complex. Several problems arise from not properly defining the difference between a game of skill and a game of chance. Such issues related to big betting in cricket and other sports have become a major challenge for the government.
Should there be any regulation in a big betting game like the IPL auction? According to Vikramjit Sen, it is a game of chance, where bets are made only on statistics and guesswork. The government should make clear and effective regulations for the gaming industry to reduce the addictive and legal problems of such games.
Vikramjit Sen’s statement has raised fresh questions about the future of the country’s gaming industry and the IPL auction. Is the huge amount of money spent through the IPL auction a form of gambling? And until clear rules are made for the online gaming industry, how will this problem be solved? It is still unknown.
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