INDIAN GAMING STATESIDE
Goa: Two Russians, one Ukrainian arrested in online gambling bust
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Responding to an anonymous tip, the Goa police crime branch, headed by Inspector Nitin Halarnkar, raided a rented commercial space in Mandrem on Thursday where they busted an online gambling racket that was being allegedly run by two Russians and one Ukrainian along with some Indian citizens. The local police discovered five
individuals playing Texas Hold’em (Card game) for money. But they weren’t just engaged in a friendly game of poker. The group allegedly ran an online gambling website which will now be checked by forensic experts. The local police have arrested five people.
The identified persons are Russian nationals Kirill Khadarin and Nikolei Balandin, Ukrainian Mykyta Atamanchuk, Delhi native Prabhat Pingreja and Rajiv Dosani from Mumbai. Nidhin Valsan, Superintendent of Police
(Crime Branch), said that the suspects were exchanging money, gambling chips, coins, and other gambling-related items worth Rs 1,21,050 while engaging in a game of Texas Hold’em. On Tuesday, police also raided an
apartment in the village of Calangute and arrested four people operating an online
gambling site. Between the two raids, police seized approximately Rs. 2.5 lakh. In a similar case just a few months back,
the Faridabad police had busted a similar online casino gambling in the city and arrested five individuals. A spokesperson of the Police Department said Dheeraj, Alok, Arun, Santu, and Chandresh, all local residents, were arrested from a housing unit in the NIT area after receiving a tip.
50 per cent of genZ Indians partake in real money gaming
A recent report showed that more than 373 million players are into gaming, making it the world’s second-largest games market. It also revealed that 91 per cent of these gamers play on mobile phones. The report also estimates that India will garner more than USD 2.2 billion in revenue for only the mobile games market at the stroke of 2022. The report by MAAS and Newzoo researched both
Real Money Gaming (RMG) and Non-RMG games. It concluded that male gamers make up the majority in both categories – 62 per cent and 55 per cent in RMG and Non-RMG. Male gamers also form the majority in every genre that was studied. The Battle Royale titles had the biggest disparity across genders, with 68 per cent of the gamers being male. Contrary to Battle Royale, puzzle games saw a smaller discrepancy, with 54 per cent of gamers being male and the other 46 per cent being female. Games such as Battle Royale and adventure, which
are action-heavy genres, have 55 per cent and 51 per cent of gamers between the ages of 13 and 27 and listed this as their favourite. Close to 50 per cent of gen Z gamers, or gamers
of the age 18-27, actively partake in RMG gaming, contrary to only 35 per cent of millennials. This infers that younger generations lean more to spend real money on gaming than the elder generations. The RMG sector has been looked into observe which genres peak at various points in the year. Sports-based culminate in April, during the cricket season, and the card-based games culminate during the festive seasons around September. This implies that publishers looking to generate
revenue could fare well if they release or double down the marketing for these related games during peak periods. However, casual and hypercasual games are among the strongest performers as far as retention rates are concerned.
The accused were found playing online games in an app named ‘PCM Client’, which was being operated by Dheeraj. According to the reports, Dheeraj was the main operator of the app while the other four had come to his house to play. The main accused was also charging a total of 5% in case the customer won the money. Three laptops, two desktop computers,
and Rs. 67,500 in cash were also recovered from Dheeraj’s house.
Founded by industry veterans, G2G News is an independent news portal covering all developments relating to online gaming, poker, gambling, casino, cricket betting and
esports in India and the Indian subcontinent.
www.g2g.news OCTOBER 2022 27
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