vLex India

Delta Corp Limited has expanded its presence beyond Indian borders by recently launching its first international casino at the Marriott Hotel in Kathmandu, Nepal. The casino has been launched as part of an agreement between the Deltin Group and Everest Hospitality and Hotel Pvt. Ltd.  Delta Corp, through an announcement to the stock exchanges, last... (See Article)

Eventus International’s 3rd edition of the Strategic Platform for iGaming Conference & Exhibition in India  (SPiCE India) is only a month away. The event will be held at Marriott Resort & Spa in Goa, India, from 25th to 27th March 2020. As per SPiCE event’s website, the focus of this year’s event will be to... (See Article)

The Bombay High Court has adjourned the hearing in a review petition filed by the central government on the manner of payment of Goods and Services Tax (GST) by Dream11 to 19th March, 2020. A division bench of the Bombay High Court comprising of Justices Ranjit More and Bharati Dangre was earlier supposed to hear... (See Article)

Controversial British businessman and Viaan Industries Limited’s Chairman, Raj Kundra has recently launched Housie Quiz, a real money, online housie and quiz game app. The game has been produced by Viaan Industries for Android and iOS.  Housie or Tambola is a popular game among Indian households. However, success in this game involves little skill and... (See Article)

In the early hours of Thursday, 30 men were arrested at a casino, a Pride Casino Group facility, near Calangute Beach in North Goa. These men were arrested on the account of rioting at the casino and holding staff and guests hostage. The Pride Casino Group management called the police at around 3:30 am to... (See Article)

House and Senate in Recess The House and Senate will be in recess next week coinciding with Presidents’ Day. DOJ Workshop on Section 230 On February 19, the Department of Justice will hold a workshop on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act titled “Section 230 – Nurturing Innovation or Fostering Unaccountability?.” US-India Trade Agreement... (See Article)

Dhaka High Court recently (Monday, February 10th) declared all forms of gambling illegal in Bangladesh. The court also observed that Public Gambling Act, 1867 should be updated and punishment for gambling should be increased. The order was passed by a bench comprising Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif and Justice Md Mahmudul Hasan Talukdar. The order followed... (See Article)

The Indian government has been striving to effectively regulate India’s e-commerce retail market, since its first attempt in 2000. The regulations have been a by-product of the fear of organised global retail with deep pockets adversely affecting scores of unorganised “mom-and-pop shops” and retailers. The Indian foreign direct investment policy on e-commerce retail has been... (See Article)

The United States has updated its list of developing and least-developed countries pertaining to countervailing duty (CVD) law.  The most notable change is that India has been removed from this list due to its share of global trade, one of the several factors considered in creating the list of developing countries.  Prior to the change... (See Article)

Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS), earlier known as Indian Federation of Sports Gaming, is hosting the 3rd edition of their Fantasy sports conference Gameplan on March 5th 2020 at theLe Meridien Hotel in New Delhi. Gameplan 2020 is expected to be attended by 250+ senior industry delegates, including operators like Dream11, MyTeam11, and My11Circle.... (See Article)

With the relaxing of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) norms in India, business is booming and economy has seen a flurry of activities. The collaboration between Indian and foreign companies has significantly increased. Greater influx of multinational companies and global investments in Indian companies has also increased the purview of Anti-Bribery and Anti-Corruption (ABAC) laws and regulations. In addition, enhancement of corporate governance procedures and an increase in whistle-blower allegations has led to a greater number of violations. While most companies have internal protocols and procedures to conduct an ABAC investigation, there are certain measures and protocols especially in investigating Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) cases which have proven effective. This article attempts to summarise these best practices. Please see full Publication below for more information. (See Article)

When outside forces pose a threat to people’s livelihood, people will go to great lengths to fight back. For example, when monkeys began ravaging the crops of a farmer in Karnataka, India, the imaginitive farmer painted his dog to look like a tiger, to scare away the pesky invaders. [Photo here.] Business owners in California are... (See Article)

Associate Editor’s Note: Nine blogs have joined LexBlog, covering issues and updates in digital currency, tax, legaltech, privileges, class action defense, and privacy. Please join us in welcoming our newest members and catch up on all the newest blogs in recent months here. Newest Blogs Joining the Network With India’s massive legal sector and technological... (See Article)

Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (MP) and former Minister Vijay Goel, on Wednesday, raised unstarred questions in the upper house of parliament in respect to committees formed by the government on banning or regulating lottery, recommendations made by such committees on online lottery, details of any plans of the government to formulate guidelines or regulation... (See Article)

ShareChat, a local social networking App, backed by Twitter, has developed a fantasy sports app called Jeet11.  ShareChat raised $100 million last year, in a funding round led by Twitter. Their fantasy app Jeet11 has been under testing for the last six months. The app hosts fantasy cricket and football games and already has a... (See Article)

 In the battle for good governance, India Inc. keeps tripping on three letters – RPT. Related-Party Transactions. This, despite the fact that India has one of the most elaborate set of rules and regulations for disclosures and approval of RPT by both listed and unlisted companies. Historically, the Companies Act, 1956 did not specifically regulate... (See Article)

Dream11-founded self-regulatory industry body Indian Federation of Sports Gaming (IFSG), has renamed itself to Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS), as per a press release. Interestingly, the industry body was originally christened as FIFS when it was incorporated as a Section 8 Company under the Companies Act, 2013 (Not for Profit Company) in 2017. This... (See Article)

Introduction As businesses strive to shift from paper to digital, there is an increasing penetration of software products across industries. This is particularly true in India. The NASSCOM Report evinces that the software products market was the fastest-growing segment amongst all IT services in India in FY2019.[1] While the making of software requires a considerable... (See Article)

Not an actual tiger. Or a dog. When outside forces pose a threat to people’s livelihood, people will go to great lengths to fight back. For example, when monkeys began ravaging the crops of a farmer in Karnataka, India, the imaginitive farmer painted his dog to look like a tiger, to scare away the pesky invaders.... (See Article)

Although Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant recently announced ban on Goans from entering casinos in the state from February 1 2020, his party colleague and State Ports Minister Michael Lobo said that Goans should be allowed to visit casinos as there is a difference between visiting a casino and gambling, as reported by The Times... (See Article)

The Indian economy is going through a slowdown, as are the economies of many other countries in the world. In the last quarter, India’s economy has grown only at a rate of 4.5%. As per the estimates of the Indian Monetary Fund, this growth rate will stall around 4.8% for the full financial year. This... (See Article)

A Supreme Court bench of Justices Rohinton F. Nariman and S. Ravindra Bhat on Friday dismissed a clarification application filed by advocate Gurdeep Singh Sachar, which had urged the apex court to allow the issue of whether the fantasy games offered by Dream11 amounts to gambling/betting can be reviewed in the Bombay High Court for... (See Article)

Leading online poker portal PokerBaazi has announced the launch of the National Poker Series (NPS) 2020 an affordable live tournament series to promote poker in the country. The first season of the series is being held from 29th April to 5th May 2020. The series aims to bring together poker players from all over the... (See Article)

The state of Punjab has banned all types of online lottery schemes operated by Indian or foreign lottery sellers in the state, as per an official spokesperson. On 31st January 2020, the government of Punjab took the decision of banning online lottery schemes under Section 5 of the Lotteries (Regulation) Act 1998. – As per... (See Article)

Additional Funding for Puerto Rico The House is expected to take up a supplemental appropriations bill next week to provide additional funding to Puerto Rico in the aftermath of recent natural disasters. Coronavirus Several committees are also expected to hold hearings on the coronavirus. State of the Union President Trump will deliver his State of... (See Article)

One of the biggest stumbling blocks for the success of deploying electric vehicle (“EV”) scheme in India is the lack of adequate charging infrastructure (“Charging Infrastructure”). The revised guidelines for Charging Infrastructure for EV, issued on October 01, 2019 (“CI Guidelines”),[1] aim to simplify the process for setting up Charging Infrastructure. Below is a brief... (See Article)

Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has announced that local Goans will be banned from entering and playing in casinos from 1st February, 2020 onwards. The Chief Minister further announced that the Commercial Tax Commissioner has been designated as Gaming Commissioner under Section 13C of the Goa, Daman and Diu Public Gambling Act as amended in... (See Article)

Dream11, India’s first gaming unicorn, is looking at raising $500 million in a funding round that is likely to be led by Tiger Global Management, a New York-based startup investor that is actively investing in India. Tiger Global Management is likely to lead the funding round for Dream11 at a valuation of $2.5 billion, as... (See Article)

Mobile Premier League (MPL) has renewed its association with its brand ambassador and Captain of the Indian Cricket team Virat Kohli for another year, as reported by Exchange4Media. Virat was first signed on as MPL brand ambassador for a year in March 2019, when the company launched various video campaigns with the cricketer to gain... (See Article)

In our continuing series of reports, Charles (“Charlie”) Oppenheim, Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division, U.S. Department of State, shares his most recent analysis of current trends and future projections for the various immigrant preference categories with AILA (the American Immigration Lawyers’ Association). Below are highlights from the most recent “check-in with Charlie”... (See Article)