The opinion trading concept has grown rapidly across India over the past few years. Opinion trading gives people a chance to earn through trading; it’s like a different form of gaming, which includes some skill.
Opinion trading is another type of gambling, which raises the question Is opinion trading considered gambling under Indian law now? And the short answer is a grey area; let’s get into the details to get the exact answer.
What exactly is opinion trading?
Opinion trading platforms operate online, and users earn money by making simple predictions. The users just have to answer in yes/no, and the questions are usually related to future events, like, can this football player win the match?
Here, the users are just trading the outcome of an event, not any financial security. Opinion trading is usually considered a skill-based game where people use their brains and not luck to win. Probo was one of the most popular online platforms when it came to opinion trading.
Why does Indian law consider opinion trading as gambling?
Under the Indian Law, gambling includes investing the money to earn more than the investment by making uncertain predictions or by investing in uncertain things.
Gambling is mostly about luck, and opinion trading looks very similar to it. In opinion trading, you invest the money, and then you win or lose based on the outcome, or you can say based on the chance you took.
Regulators and the court often check if the game is about skill or chance, and according to them, Opinion Trading games are more likely about chance.
SEBI has indicated that this type of opinion-based platform is like betting disguised as investing because here the payout totally depends on the result of the event and not on participation in this regulated market.
Many people also complained that Opinion Trading is just a way of presenting a skill-based game, but it’s actually a luck- and chance-based game, or you can say more like gambling.
Final Thought:
The answer to the question is, is opinion trading considered gambling under Indian law now? So the answer is not clear, but yes, most likely it’s considered gambling.
There is no one particular law that states all opinion trading is gambling, but mostly if there is any platform that does opinion trading, the chance of them getting banned after an investigation by the government is very high.