END GAME FOR MONEY GAAMING

India has outlawed all real-money online games through a new Bill. Can this sweeping ban protect players without stifling innovation?

- By ASHISH SINHA

ON 21 AUGUST 2025, the Indian Parliament passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, a landmark legislation that could redefine the way millions of Indians play, spend, and interact online. Within hours, the law received presidential assent, instantly becoming enforceable.

The Bill takes a two-pronged approach. On one hand, it bans all forms of real-money online gaming—be it chance-based, skill-based, or hybrid, effectively including poker, rummy, and fantasy cricket under its ambit. Advertising, promoting, or facilitating such games can now invite penalties up to Rs 1 crore and even jail terms stretching three years. On the other, the legislation explicitly promotes esports, educational gaming, and casual skill-based entertainment, creating a framework to nurture India's budding game-development ecosystem.

Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who handles the Information & Broadcasting and Electronics & IT portfolios, justified the move in blunt terms: “There are people who have lost their entire life savings. The problem is, when celebrities endorse such games... once people get into it, algorithms ensure they lose more than they win. It has become a public health menace.” He later posted on social media, “The Bill takes a balanced approach – promoting what’s good, prohibiting what’s harmful for middle-class and youth.”

According to the minister, over 45 crore Indians have collectively lost more than Rs 20,000 crore to money-gaming apps over the past few years. For the government, the urgency was nonnegotiable. But for the industry—worth billions in valuations and foreign investment—the fallout is existential.