Even as the government released an amended IT Rules 2021, incorporating provisions for the online gaming sector and some updates on fake news content, it said that the date for submitting comments has been extended by about a week.

“Feedback is invited from the public on these draft amendments as well. Submissions will not be attributed to individuals publicly and will be held in fiduciary capacity to enable persons submitting the feedback to provide the same freely,” the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) said in a statement Tuesday, adding, the last date for receipt of feedback is extended till January 25, 2023.

The revised draft amendments are placed on the Ministry’s website at https://www.meity.gov.in/content/extension-time-inviting-feedback-draft- amendments-it-intermediary-guidelines-and-digital . The text of the rules as they would stand after effecting the amendments (with the amended portions of the text shown in colour) is also placed on the Meity website.

Amongst the amendments are the definition of what is an online game. It has been defined as a game that is offered on the Internet and is accessible by a user through a computer resource if he makes a deposit with the expectation of earning winnings.

It has also been clarified that an intermediary shall, before hosting or publishing or advertising an online game for a consideration, ascertain from the online gaming intermediary and verify from the self-regulatory body concerned whether such online game has been registered with such a body, apart from displaying the registration details, etc.

Additional due diligence to be observed by online gaming intermediary include the following:

(a)    The online gaming intermediary shall display a demonstrable and visible mark of registration on all online games registered by the self-regulatory body, as referred to in sub-rule (5) of rule 4B.

(b)    The rules and regulations, privacy policy, terms of service and user agreements of the online gaming intermediary shall inform the user of its computer resource of all the online games offered by the online gaming intermediary, along with the policy related to withdrawal or refund of the deposit made with the expectation of earning winnings, the manner of determination and distribution of such winnings, and the fees and other charges payable by the user for each such online game; the risk of financial loss and addiction associated with the online game; the know-your-customer procedure followed by the online gaming intermediary for registration of the account of a user; the measures taken for protection of deposit made by a user; and the framework of such self-regulatory body which the online gaming intermediary may be a member of.

(c)     The online gaming intermediary shall prominently publish on its website, mobile based application or both, a random number generation certificate and a no bot certificate from a reputed certifying body for each online game offered by it, along with relevant details of the same.

(d)    The online gaming intermediary shall, at the time of commencement of a user account based relationship for an online game, identify the user and verify his identity, provided that the procedure for such identification and verification shall, mutatis mutandis, be the procedure required to be followed by an entity regulated by the Reserve Bank of India under directions issued by it for identification and verification of a customer at the commencement of an account-based relationship.

(e)     The online gaming intermediary shall enable users who register for their services from India, or use their services in India, to voluntarily verify their accounts by using any appropriate mechanism, including the active Indian mobile number of such users, and where any user voluntarily verifies their account, such user shall be provided with a demonstrable and visible mark of verification, which shall be visible to all users of the service.