The Indian government is reportedly looking to implement new laws to regulate the country’s mobile gaming industry. Indian minister of state for electronics and information technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar has said that the government will be prohibiting three types of mobile games due to public concerns over the impact of gaming and to reflect the use of modern technologies like AI.

Chandrasekhar commented, “For the first time, we have prepared a framework regarding online gaming, in that we will not allow three types of games in the country. Games that involve betting or can be harmful to the user and that involves a factor of addiction will be banned in the country.”

The new legislation follows a request by Indian game developers for legislative consultation after concerns were raised that all games would be treated the same as gambling. Although it remains unclear how much impact the proposed regulations will have, the categorisation appears to be broadly applicable and may have unintended consequences for titles that are not gambling-related.

In recent years, mobile gaming has faced a degree of public scrutiny, in part due to several tabloid stories such as speculation that mobile gaming led to a murder in Lucknow city in Uttar Pradesh, although subsequent reports discredited the link.

India’s mobile gaming industry remains popular, however, with titles such as PUBG: Mobile spinoff BGMI (BattleGrounds Mobile India) and other battle royale games being particularly popular.