The Rajya Sabha’s approval of the online gaming Bill Thursday has drawn the final curtain on India’s booming real-money gaming industry. What was once a bustling digital arena of wagers and winnings now stands eerily silent, as leading platforms suspend paid play and others fold entirely. Lawmakers hail the measure as a shield against harm, but to thousands of workers and millions of players, it feels like the lights have dimmed on a once-thriving stage.
Opinion trading platform Probo, in a message displayed on its app, said that “in light of recent developments, we have paused all recharge activities in your best interest,” while requesting users to withdraw funds. Dream11, the country’s biggest fantasy sports app and the Indian cricket team’s main jersey sponsor, also communicated to its employees that it will wind down its real money operations. Zupee, another gaming platform, said it was discontinuing paid games, with users able to play free titles.
“Everyone will shut down paid operations for now, as the industry prepares a legal roadmap to challenge the law,” a senior gaming industry executive said.
The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, now passed by both houses of Parliament, outlaws online money gaming services and penalises their celebrity endorsers. The Bill has been drafted over national security concerns related to online gaming platforms, including the use of digital wallets and cryptocurrencies for money laundering and illicit fund transfers, these platforms serving as potential messaging and communication grounds for terror organisations, and offshore entities circumventing Indian tax and legal obligations, among others.
The government will prohibit any person from offering online games in India, failing which they could be imprisoned for up to three years, and penalised Rs 1 crore. Those promoting such platforms, such as social media influencers, will also face jail time of two years, and a penalty of Rs 50 lakh. The government will also prohibit banks and financial institutions from facilitating financial transactions on such platforms.
The Bill applies to all online money gaming platforms irrespective of whether they are games of skill or chance, a distinction the industry had lobbied hard for in the past.
The Bill said that the unchecked expansion of online money gaming services has been linked to “unlawful activities including financial fraud, money-laundering, tax evasion, and in some cases, the financing of terrorism, thereby posing threats to national security, public order and the integrity of the State”.
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The parallel proliferation of online money games accessible through mobile phones, computers and the internet, and offering monetary returns against user deposits has led to “serious social, financial, psychological and public health harms, particularly among young individuals and economically disadvantaged groups,” it said.
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