Tamil Nadu moots night ban, deposit caps to rein in online gaming addiction

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu may soon put daily time and cash limits on online gaming and totally ban it between midnight and 5am. People may not be allowed to play for more than four hours a day, with each session capped at two hours.

Daily and monthly cash limits of 5,000 and 20,000, respectively, and mandatory Aadhaar verification for registration on gaming platforms are also planned.

These regulations have been proposed by the Tamil Nadu Online Gaming Authority that was set up last year. The proposals follow a recent survey of 1.5 lakh children conducted by the authority, which found that many were using their parents' phones to play online games at night.

The apps now require a one-time password (OTP) during registration, allowing children to misuse their parents' phones and continue playing.

"This loophole can be fixed by requiring authorised gamers of legal age to enter an OTP each time they log in," said a member of the authority, who wished to remain anonymous.

The member added that apps should ideally send pop-up notifications about time and money spent at frequent intervals, as done in China, South Korea and the UAE, to prevent addiction among children and adults.

Initially, the e-gaming industry proposed self-regulation for time and money spent, but the govt has moved away from this idea.

Several rounds of discussions have been held with stakeholders to establish guidelines for real-money games, such as online rummy and fantasy cricket, where players can stake money and earn cash or other prizes, according to the authority member.

However, these regulations would not apply to entertainment-oriented video games, where there is no money at stake. “There could be money-in in certain games but no money-out,” said Harish Chengiah, founder & CEO of Outlier Games who was involved in the govt discussions.

He said that enforcing time and money restrictions on video games is difficult due to their smaller user base in TN compared to real-money games, which are popular among lakhs of people.