Shillong, Jan 15: Realizing the importance of online gaming and the immense revenue generated by it that could benefit the state, the Meghalaya government has moved a draft ordinance to streamline this sector on Thursday.

“Gaming has emerged as one of the most popular past times globally and Meghalaya is no exception,” said  Meghalaya Taxation Minister James Pangsang K Sangma as the state government moved to increase revenue collection.

The Meghalaya taxation department has decided that any person dealing with online gaming will be required to obtain a license.

The Cabinet on Thursday approved the proposal to notify the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Ordinance, 2021.

“In order to regulate gaming within the state and to bring revenue to the state government, we felt it necessary to enact a law for the same and therefore, the cabinet has approved the draft ordinance,” he said.

Asked, the minister said at present there is no regulatory mechanism to monitor the whole online gaming scene that is taking place in Meghalaya.

“Online gaming is an industry which is quite a big industry in the entire world and today in Meghalaya it is going on and unfortunately we don’t have a regulatory mechanism but it is something already going on, so we have to have measures to regulate that,” he added.

He told that the state taxation department is exploring ways of improving the existing taxation acts, through embracing the usage of technology and also by tapping new resources to generate revenue.

“The gaming through the use of information technology generates revenue to the entity involved in the operation of online gaming server through acceptance of stake money and advertisements,” the Taxation Minister said.

He informed that the Taxation department has seen that through the usage of information technology gaming today has emerged as one of the most popular past times globally and Meghalaya was no exception.

In order to regulate gaming within the State, and to bring revenue to the government the department felt it necessary to enact a law for the same and therefore the draft ordinance was placed in the cabinet for its approval, Sangma explained.

The views of the Law department and Finance department were sought and both have given Their approval to it, he said, adding that right now there is no regulatory mechanism to monitor the online gaming scene in Meghalaya.