The teen patti game on social network portal Ibibo is being played by thousands of users daily. "The biggest age group for ibibo Teen Patti is 21 to 35 years. Interestingly we see a 40 per cent female audience for some of our card games. The biggest draw is from users in Delhi NCR, Mumbai and all the cities of Gujarat," says Rahul Razdan, president (products and operations) of Ibibo Web (P) Ltd.
"Apart from teen patti and rummy, other popular card games on the ibibo platform are blackjack, hearts, and Texas hold 'Em poker. All these are multiplayer card games played real-time with other live users.
"There are also numerous game rooms with innovative variations like 'Imagine the Third Card' and 'Muflis'," he told PTI. According to Razdan, the games are backed by social recognition elements like rewards and badges.
"Users play real time with their friends online or make friends with other players. The games act as an excellent context for people to socialize and communicate. In view of Diwali, we have observed that the time-spent playing and number of game-plays have increased by 40 per cent.
Card games are widely played during Diwali with cash at stake sometimes. Amitabh Bachchan also has plans to try his luck at teen patti. "In keeping with tradition, cards shall be played as a 'shagun' and winnings and loss at them shall be taken as an indicator how well, or not so well the year shall be financially," he wrote on his blog.
Popularity of gambling in India is evident from the fact that the online market opportunity in India is being pegged at a staggering USD 5 billion and the overall betting market is even bigger at USD 40 billion.
Mobile entertainment company Nazara Technologies has a poker game while another gaming site Zapak.com has a teen patti game.