Industry welcomes six-month window to refund real-money game deposits

The proposed six-month transition period for companies and payment partners to refund money collected from users for real-money games before their ban eases pressure on these firms, which otherwise face criminal liability under the draft online gaming rules, industry executives and legal experts said.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has opened stakeholder consultations on the draft rules issued on Thursday.

“Under the proposed rules, banks, UPI operators, card networks, and payment gateways will have 180 days to figure…