Indian Poker Site Attracts More Celebrity Endorsements

On September 15th, the Indian online poker market will expand further with the launch of a new celebrity endorsed poker site called Celebritygames.in. The poker room’s founder is wealthy businessman Raj Kundra, the husband of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty Kundra, both of whom appear on the site’s endorsement list.
As well as offering real money poker games, people playing on Celebritygames.in will have the opportunity to compete against some of the country’s best known actors, sports stars, businessmen, and other celebrities including Harman Baweja, Shahid Kapoor, Minissha Lamba and Rohan Gavaskar.
The site’s founder, Raj Kundra, recently offered real money options at another one of his websites called Stockrace.in, which features a virtual stock market trading game. The real money offering has since been withdrawn over concerns of whether it might contravene rules laid out by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), and it has now reverted back to being a free to play site.
While games of chance are illegal on the sub-continent, the Supreme Court of India has stated that skill-based games are not. Raj Kundra has therefore decided to take advantage of what could potentially be a lucrative market, and as stated on his Celebritygames site:
“All the card games offered at Celebritygames.in are completely legal to play in India… Playing online poker on our site is 100% safe & secure as we follow the highest level of online security.”
One celebrity who isn’t associated with the site, however, is Shane Warne. In recent articles written about the site’s imminent lauch, reports emerged of the cricket legend accepting an endorsement deal, many of which have now been removed after Warne tweeted:
“I have nothing to do with any poker company in India – zero ! Facts straight please you rubbish journalists.”
In good spirits, Raj Kundra then tweeted a reply to Warne’s comment, stating:
“Reading some news on @ShaneWarne being a part of my Indian Poker venture. Completely inaccurate info (we can’t afford him) haha.”