Google has pulled popular Indian financial services app Paytm from the Play Store for violating its gambling policies. Paytm is India’s most valued startup and has over 50 million monthly active users. Google said that Play Store prohibits online casinos and other unregulated gambling apps that facilitate sports betting in India. Paytm app repeatedly violated company’s policies.
The announcement from Google today is also a detterent attempt from the company to remind other developers about its gambling policies a day before the popular cricket tournament Indian Premier League (IPL) is scheduled to begin.
Sports betting is banned in India, but fantasy sports where users select their favorite players and win if their preferred team or players play well is not illegal in most Indian states.
“We have these policies to protect users from potential harm. When an app violates these policies, we notify the developer of the violation and remove the app from Google Play until the developer brings the app into compliance,” stated Suzanne Frey, Vice President, Product, Android Security and Privacy. “And in the case where there are repeated policy violations, we may take more serious action which may include terminating Google Play Developer accounts. Our policies are applied and enforced on all developers consistently,” she added.
