Google today said it is pulling around the globe its experiment to permit new forms of real-money games in the Play Store, citing pains related to the lack of a central authority to approve such applications in some regions.

January. The company said it would allow real-money apps broadly in June in India, Brazil and Mexico. For example, it has already allowed fantasy sports and Rummy apps since 2022 in India and since November 2023 in Mexico.
The company said it will still allow the apps that were part of the pilot programme to continue running on the Play Store in India.

It's been more challenging than we anticipated in the rollout of our expansion of our support for games involving real-money wagering on apps in those markets without a central licensing framework, and we require a little more time to get it right for our developer partners and the safety of our users. Google Play "remains deeply committed to helping all developers responsibly build new businesses and reach wider audiences across a variety of content types and genres," a Google spokesperson said in a statement.

However, a company spokesperson said that it would be supportive of real-money games on the Play Store but is trying to figure out a suitable framework for that. Google also said that it is still working on a new service fee structure for these kinds of games and will need more time to finalize the details.

Google specifically talked to the Indian market without referring to any central licensing framework that would determine what kind of games are permissible in the country. The company probably doesn't want to tread through the high-risk waters of regulation. The good news is that last year, India's IT ministry stalled the formation of a self-regulating body for the gaming industry that might have defined rules about real-money games.