Google said today that it has paused its experiment to allow real money games on the Play Store globally, as there is no central body for this type of app.
In January, the company said it would start allowing real money apps on a large scale in June in India, Brazil and Mexico. It is worth noting that India has a pilot program for Fantasy sports and rummy apps since 2022 And in Mexico since November 2023.
The company said it will still allow apps that were part of the beta program to continue working on the Play Store in India.
Expanding our support for real money gaming apps in markets without a central licensing framework has proven to be more difficult than expected, and we need additional time to do it right for our developer partners and for the safety of our users. “Google Play remains deeply committed to helping all developers build new businesses responsibly and reach broader audiences across a variety of content types and genres,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement.
The company added that it wants to support real-money games on the Play Store, but is trying to discover a suitable framework for this. Google also said it is still working on a new service fee structure for these types of games and will need more time to finalize the details.
Addressing the Indian market specifically, Google said that without any central licensing framework that determines what kind of games are allowed in the country, the company does not want to tread treacherous regulatory waters. In addition, last year, the Indian Ministry of Information Technology stopped formation Self-regulatory body The gaming industry may have set rules around real money games.