{"id":29123,"date":"2022-04-20T10:09:30","date_gmt":"2022-04-20T13:09:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=29123"},"modified":"2026-04-23T09:27:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T12:27:40","slug":"meghalaya-found-to-be-most-gambling-friendly-state-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/meghalaya-found-to-be-most-gambling-friendly-state-in-india","title":{"rendered":"Meghalaya found to be most gambling-friendly state in India"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The state of Meghalaya legalised gambling last year and hopes to become a hub for the activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

India.- The state of Meghalaya <\/strong>is the most gambling-friendly state in India according to a new study. The UK Indian Business Council (UKIBC) Gaming Industry Index\u00a0measures each state’s attitude to gambling and betting based on seven verticals (lottery, horse racing, sports betting, poker, rummy, casino and fantasy sports). Meghalaya has a score of 92.85\u00a0<\/strong>on a scale of 0 to 100, 100 being fully legal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state is seeking to become a gambling hub after it legalised gambling in February 2021<\/strong> by passing the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Ordinance. Last year’s legislation nullified the Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act 1970, making Meghalaya the third state in the northeast of India to legalise gambling and online gambling after after Sikkim and Nagaland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James PK Sangma, Meghalaya’s law and taxation minister<\/strong>\u00a0is now reported talks with several business leaders to explore how to further develop the state’s gambling industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UKIBC managing director Kevin McCole<\/strong> said: “We applaud the government of Meghalaya on its forward-thinking approach to the license of games of chance in the state, which will help to contribute greater revenues and bring jobs to the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“A regulated market also provides safeguards and protection for players, safeguards that are not available in the unregulated sector.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India: Telangana rethinks online gambling ban<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the state of\u00a0Telangana\u00a0<\/strong>is rethinking its ban on all forms of gambling. It introduced the ban in 2017 after reports of gambling addiction leading to suicides and bankruptcy but has found it led to players being targeted by illegal offshore sites outside of government control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Realising the ban may be ineffective, authorities are now also concerned about missed potential tax revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking at the recent All India Gaming Federation (AIGF) Knowledge Series Forum, Telangana\u2019s chief secretary for IT, electronics and communications,\u00a0Jayesh Ranjan<\/strong>, said he has drafted a bill to change the situation and is waiting for the right time to bring it to the Cabinet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India’s central government is also considering a move to regulate online gambling in India<\/a>. Through the\u00a0Online Gambling Regulation Act<\/strong>, the government would create a central gambling regulator, the Online Gambling Commission, with a mandate to oversee the operations of online gambling operators and punish illegal operators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The state of Meghalaya legalised gambling last year and hopes to become a hub for the activity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":15318,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Meghalaya has emerged as a leading gambling-friendly state in India, having legalized various gaming verticals in 2021 and actively seeking to become a regional hub, driven by revenue generation and player protection. Concurrently, Telangana is re-evaluating its gambling ban due to its ineffectiveness against illegal offshore operations and missed tax revenues, while India's central government considers establishing a national regulatory framework.","focusai_entities":"Meghalaya, UK Indian Business Council (UKIBC), James PK Sangma, Kevin McCole, Telangana, All India Gaming Federation (AIGF), Jayesh Ranjan, Sikkim, Nagaland, Online Gambling Commission","focusai_location":"India, Meghalaya, Telangana, Sikkim, Nagaland","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (1.0), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (1.0), affiliate_publisher (0.8), product_ux (0.7), tech_data (0.7), marketing_crm (0.8), payments_fraud_aml (0.8), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (1.0), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Meghalaya GGR Projections?","query":"What are the projected GGR contributions and NGR potential for Meghalaya's regulated iGaming market over the next three to five years, considering the identified gaming verticals and anticipated B2C operator entry?"},{"label":"Central Regulation Impact?","query":"How would the proposed Online Gambling Regulation Act and the establishment of a central Online Gambling Commission impact existing state-level licensing frameworks and the operational compliance burden for B2B and B2C entities across India?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,16333],"tags":[23911,4138],"class_list":["post-29123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regulation-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-online-gambling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29123"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29133,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29123\/revisions\/29133"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}