Real-money gaming companies look for an ace to beat tax blues
Companies that run online games like poker, rummy and fantasy sports where real money is wagered are experimenting with new models that discourage users from frequently withdrawing their money, as they seek to minimise the impact of increased indirect tax and boost their earnings.
For shorter games like rummy and poker, companies are trying out curbs on withdrawal of deposits to avoid being hit by repetitive taxation, as GST is levied every time a new deposit is made. For fantasy sports where the play duration runs into hours and a huge number of users participate, they are tinkering with the win percentage.
Rummy and poker platforms that used to see over 70% of their users opt for daily withdrawals of winnings, according to industry executives, are slowly clamping down on this. Some like A23 are allowing only 15-20 daily withdrawals in a month, after which users can only pull out money a day later, people in the know said. A few have tried restricting withdrawals on heavy traffic days like Sundays.
