India may have gained independence from the British Empire in 1947, but it retains an old gambling law first introduced in 1867, back when the British government introduced it. The Public Gambling Act of 1867 effectively made gambling illegal (in almost all forms), and that law has been largely unchanged since. However, this national law competes with several state laws, and this can confuse Indian bettors.

For instance, the initial law is so old that there is no law regulating the online gambling industry. Furthermore, the wording of the original law (referring to houses) means that online betting establishments (being digital) don’t fall under its jurisdiction. This is, of course, a matter of interpretation.

There is also the curious case of Sikkim. This state is the only one (of nearly thirty) that has formally legalised online casino gambling. Moreover, it regulates it. Passed in 2008, the Sikkim Online Gambling (Regulation) Act is a model that several other Indian states want to copy but have thus far been unable to agree on. When it comes to land-based gambling, just Sikkim and Goa (along with Daman and Diu) have brick-and-mortar gambling venues that are legal.

Officially, the national gambling law prevents Indians from betting. However, as mentioned, with selective interpretation, you can get around that law when gambling online. Moreover, the Information Technology Act doesn’t mention online gambling. Effectively, while Indian businesses are not allowed to offer online gambling opportunities to Indians, there is no law preventing Indians from playing at foreign, offshore casino sites.

This is, therefore, something that many Indians choose to do. This is made even more important as there hasn’t been a single reported casino of Indians being prosecuted for gambling online at foreign sites.

In a bid to try and cut down on offshore gambling, India has asked its banks and card providers to cut out gambling-related transactions. This is deemed favourable to blacklisting sites. However, it hasn’t proven overly effective, as other payment methods have sprung up that allow Indian players to move money to gambling sites (and back again) without much trouble.

Of course, because online gambling isn’t regulated in the country, there are no licensing or regulatory bodies. This means that any online casino an Indian chooses to join will be licensed and regulated in another country. For this reason, it is important that any site you choose to play at is adequately licensed, fair, and secure. The types of casinos that feature here have won our seal of approval and meet those requirements.

Indian bettors tend to favour traditional table games over slots and modern mobile options. For instance, baccarat, blackjack, and roulette are popular Western table games favoured by nationals. Indian favourites include Andar Bahar, Indian Flush, Indian Rummy, and Teen Patti, and many of these can be found at Indian betting sites in both live dealer and RNG (random number generator) format. Slots can be found at India-focused casinos, and there’s no shortage of titles out there with India-friendly themes. They just aren’t as popular as table games.

Indians also love to wager on sports. There are plenty of India-centric online sportsbooks out there (again, not based in the country) which cater to India’s immense population. Cricket betting is so popular that some sites have dedicated themselves to effectively being “cricket books”.

While there are no mainstream software providers based in India, the Asian country does have one or two homegrown businesses that develop online casino games. These are commonly found at India-focused casino sites and seldom appear in worldwide and Western gambling domains of any significance.

Indian casinos are (perhaps unsurprisingly) not based in India, so seemingly anyone is invited to sign up and play at those betting sites. Moreover, most are international casinos, meaning that they accept Indian rupees as just one of many different currencies. Some sites are more dedicated than others, offering Hindi (sometimes even Tamil) as languages and offering support directly to Indian players. However, for the most part, these settings can be adjusted, and this can be advantageous for Indians (using the USD currency, for instance) to make their activities more international. In short, you don’t have to be Indian or, indeed, based in India to play at Indian online casinos.