The legalization of the online skill games was completed in India just a few months ago, on April of 2016 and now, it was time for the first licenses to be granted. The delays were issued due to a Madras High Court ruling that poker could not be played for financial gain. That brought a stalemate to the completion of the licensing procedure. More specifically, the Indian state Nagaland issued online poker licenses to two websites. Khelo365.com and ClubEmpire.in, are the first two sites to offer real money games internationally and of course to Indian customers, at whichever state is legal to play online with real money.
Mr Rafi Ashkenazi, who own Pokerstars, commented on the Indian poker market just over one month before: “We estimate the market in India to be anywhere between $80 million to a $150 million a year. But it will take time to build up this level of revenues from India. Until then we should help from our side the market to grow even more. That will happen with new bookmakers coming into the market.”