Raj Kundra’s Viaan Industries Starts Controversial Real Money Housie App
Controversial British businessman and Viaan Industries Limited’s Chairman, Raj Kundra has recently launched Housie Quiz, a real money, online housie and quiz game app. The game has been produced by Viaan Industries for Android and iOS.
Housie or Tambola is a popular game among Indian households. However, success in this game involves little skill and high amount of luck or chance.
Viaan Games’s House Quiz allows players to purchase up to two tickets of Rs. 25 each. The players can choose to play through the live feed format at 8 pm everyday or play through various randomly generated number games held throughout the day. The twist in the House Quiz game from Kundra is that a quiz question is asked to players after every number, and if a player gets the answer to the question right, they get the number, too, if it’s there in the player’s tickets. On incorrect answers, the player’s ticket number becomes red, which means the player can still play for lines and corners but not for the full house. Viaan Games claims that the winners can win instant cash of up to Rs 9,999, which is transferred to players’ Paytm account on winning. Viaan Games also announced that they have partnered with a national broadcaster to air on national television the snowball Sunday games, where the prizes will go in Lakhs of Rupees from 20th April 2020 onwards.
As per a report by AnimationXpress, Raj Kundra said, “The last five to six years in India has seen a substantial amount of growth in the real money gaming (RMG) industry. Online gaming has a massive market opportunity that prolongs beyond interactive entertainment. I have always thrived on online gaming and under it, board games have been one of my absolute favourites. This is when I thought of creating a game where everyone can play together as a family and at the same time it’s nostalgic and enjoyable. This is when I thought of getting back India’s most loved game Housie as a game of skill. With Housie Quiz I am proud to announce India’s first real money game of skill. By customising it with the quiz element we have made it more relatable and fun for our users.”
As winnings in Kundra’s game format are still dependent upon randomly generated or picked numbers, the game still seems to have a large involvement of chance.
Controversy seems to have continued to surround Raj Kundra’s gaming ventures in India. In 2016, Raj Kundra promoted a real money stock game on its website Stockrace.in through Satyug Gold Pvt. Ltd. The game was withdrawn from their website after questions were raised by the media and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on the legality of stock exchange-based games luring customers with real money while claiming to be a skill-based game.
In early 2018, former promoter of Match Indian Poker League’s (Match IPL) Goa Kings team, actor Sachiin Joshi and the league’s founder Raj Kundra exchanged harsh words against one another over alleged non-payment of dues and allegations of rigging of the Match IPL games.
Later, in October 2018, Ability Games Pvt. Ltd., the company which owns the Goa Lions team refused to pay the fee of Rs. 50 lakh to participate in Season 3 of Match IPL, alleging that Match IPL did not honour its commitment of holding an auction for poker players as well as of conducting the event in the ‘match poker’ format using electronic devices. When Viaan Industries sent Goa Lions a termination notice, Ability Games approached the Bombay High Court against the action.
