Google today said that the company will expand support for more real-money games (RMG) in the Play Store this year by allowing a wider range of games in the category under local laws.

The search giant said extended support for real-money gaming will begin in June in India, Brazil and Mexico with further rollout planned in other countries later.

The company is also said to be working on a new service fee model related to subscriptions and in-app purchases. However, it didn't give much details about the cut it will take from developers.

With this policy update, we will also be evolving our service fee model for RMG to reflect the value Google Play provides and to help sustain the Android and Play ecosystems. We are working closely with developers to ensure our new approach reflects the unique economics and various developer earning models of this industry," Karan Gambhir, director, Global Trust & Safety Partnerships at Google, said in a blog post.

Generally, Google has permitted real-money gaming applications that fall under local regulatory frameworks for a specific category. In this regard, the change in policy is going to permit more types of lawful but unregulated real-money gaming applications on the company's behalf.

In 2021, Google began its efforts to enable the presence of real-money gaming apps on the Play Store. In 2022, it initiated a pilot in India to enable fantasy sports and Rummy apps on the local Play Store. Last year, Google allowed an extension for already approved apps until January 15. And with this latest update, the pilot apps will be given a grace period until June 30.

The company pulled Paytm's app from the Play Store in 2020, citing that the app featured newly introduced fantasy sports elements.

The pilot also had regulations around age verification and ID verification. Google rolled out a similar pilot in Mexico last November, which will extend up to June 30. After that, developers will be able to publish their real-money gaming apps on the Play Store beyond the fantasy sports categories.

It said, however, that it will publish detailed policies around the change in the coming months, including guardrails such as age limits and geo-restrictions.

Google Play Store will have a new, although still relatively minor, revenue factor in service fees on real-money games as the company faces growing scrutiny around the world to allow developers to use alternative payment methods. It usually offers a 4% discount on service fees under its user-choice billing program, which was first tested in 2022 and is still available only through certain partners.