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Opinion Trading platform Probo halts operation as Online Gaming Bill clears Parliament
The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill bans all forms of online money games while promoting eSports and online social gaming.
Opinion Trading platform Probo announced on Thursday that it has decided to discontinue its real-money gaming (RMG) operations immediately.
The company's decision comes as the Rajya Sabha passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, which bans all forms of online money games while promoting eSports and online social gaming. The bill was earlier passed in the Lok Sabha.
“As unfortunate as it is, we respect the government of India's latest Online Gaming bill. In light of this development, Probo has decided to discontinue its real-money gaming (RMG) operations with immediate effect until further notice,” Probo said in a statement.
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"We remain steadfast in our vision to innovate and build information markets from India, for the world," the company added.
Probo, India's leading opinion trading platform, reviewed the newly introduced Online Gaming Bill and acknowledged the government's objective to build a safer and more transparent digital ecosystem.
Probo, the country's largest opinion trading platform with over 50 million registered users, enables trading across a wide range of event contracts.
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Earlier, the company had urged the government to recognise Opinion Trading as a permissible skill-based activity and adopt a differentiated regulatory approach instead of a blanket prohibition.
“In India, opinion trading has been characterised as a game. However, in the United States of America, it has been regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a Designated Contract Market - or in layman's terms - a financial market for information exchange and trading,” Anurag Dhandhi, Business Head at Probo, had said earlier, according to ANI.
“At its very core, opinion trading (prediction markets) is a tool for economic insight, information aggregation, and forecasting that enables users to apply judgment, knowledge and analysis to real-world developments. By fostering informed and responsible participation, it goes beyond entertainment. It is a nascent-yet-thriving sector globally that contributes to improving financial literacy, data-driven decision-making and strengthening the larger digital economy.”
“While we applaud the government's intent to introduce a progressive framework, we urge the government to build on this vision by explicitly recognizing opinion trading as a permissible skill-based activity and by adopting a differentiated regulatory approach instead of a blanket prohibition. This will strengthen user protection while ensuring that India fully captures the socio-economic benefits of this sunrise sector.”
