On August 20, the Lok Sabha passed The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025. This legislation represents not merely regulatory intervention but a carefully crafted blueprint for nurturing a responsible gaming ecosystem while decisively addressing the mounting social and economic hazards of real-money gaming platforms.

India's gaming landscape presents both tremendous opportunities and significant risks. The gaming market grew 23% year-on-year to $3.8 billion in revenue in 2023-24, with the online gamer base expanding to 488 million users in 2024. Yet, beneath this growth lies a troubling underbelly: illegal betting platforms attract annual deposits estimated at $100 billion, while the top 15 illegal gambling platforms received 5.8 billion visits between April 2024 and March 2025.

A Market Worth Billions

The Indian gambling market is estimated to be worth up to $60 billion annually, with about half of these bets being illegal. This massive parallel economy operates without oversight, consumer protection, or tax contribution, causing not just loss of revenue but also active harm to millions of families across the nation.

Against this backdrop, the bill's dual approach - encouraging legitimate gaming while imposing a blanket ban on real money gaming - demonstrates sophisticated regulatory thinking. Banks and financial institutions will be prohibited from facilitating fund transfers for online money gaming, while advertisements promoting real-money gaming will be barred. From financial infrastructure to marketing practices, this multi-pronged strategy targets the entire ecosystem that enables problematic gambling behaviours.

The establishment of an Online Gaming Authority for coordinated policy support, strategic development and regulatory oversight signals the government's commitment to creating institutional capacity for long-term sector governance. This centralised approach addresses one of the key weaknesses of previous regulatory attempts - fragmented state-level interventions that created regulatory arbitrage opportunities.

A Series Of Failed Steps

India's journey toward gaming regulation has been marked by false starts and judicial setbacks. States like Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka passed laws banning online games, but they were quashed by state High Courts on the grounds that an outright ban was unfair to games of skill. These piecemeal approaches failed because they lacked nuanced differentiation between harmful gambling and legitimate skill-based gaming.

The 2021 IT Rules amendments represented an earlier attempt at federal regulation but fell short of addressing the core issues. The current bill learns from these experiences by creating clear definitional boundaries and providing a comprehensive regulatory framework rather than blanket prohibitions that courts found constitutionally problematic.

The legislation focus on social protection is very pertinent as there have been witnessed suicides and deep financial losses in many situations. This stark assessment reflects the human cost of unregulated gaming platforms. The legislation's protective focus on individuals, especially youth and vulnerable populations, acknowledges that digital platforms can become vectors for social harm when inadequately regulated.

Curbing Addiction At Source

The bill's provisions will effectively curb the predatory practices that have characterised much of India's online gaming sector. By severing the financial infrastructure supporting real-money games, the legislation addresses addiction at its source - the seamless integration of gambling with digital payment systems that makes compulsive betting frictionless.

Link: https://www.ndtv.com/opinion/play-safe-how-india-plans-to-regulate-its-gaming-boom-9129164?fbclid=IwY2xjawMTpFFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHrgo-eqec6w6fgmwWDhsTxZzc8yeFLj4UK9C92U2cAxZjtcmN8qHw5j7aBRw_aem_XZnsdRxVKvbuadVqNUkZdw