India Bans Online Real-Money Games: New Law Explained
Big news to tell you that is related to you. You must have seen that casinos are banned in our country. You won’t see physical casinos, but there are millions of casinos running in our country on mobile phones, which are on all of your phones. Now, a new bill has been introduced to impose a ban on them. And this new bill is called ‘The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025’. And today, this bill was passed in the Lok Sabha, and it might become law very soon.
This bill will regulate online gaming, and any online games where people put in their money and earn money upon winning will be banned. We call such games ‘online money games’. You must have seen many advertisements on social media lately. A lot of ads keep appearing on Instagram where people come and say, ‘I play this online game and I have earned so much money from this game,’ and they motivate people to ‘you also play, earn money from home.’ You must have seen many ads saying ‘play games, earn money from home.’ Now, these games will become illegal.
So, there are four major points in this bill:
- Providing services for online money games, operating them, and even advertising them will now be illegal.
- If anyone offers online money games or advertises them, they could face up to 3 years in jail and a fine of up to ₹1 crore, or both.
- For running advertisements, there will be 2 years of jail and a fine of up to ₹50 lakh, or both.
- Those who play such games will not be punished. So, remember one thing: if you are playing such games—online money games—there is no action against the players. No punishment will be given. The punishment or fine is for those who provide the service of such games, those who operate such games, or those who advertise them.
And fourthly, a separate authority will now be created to regulate the gaming industry, which will decide which games are online money games. This means it will decide which games fall into this category. Games without money involved or electronic sports (e-sports) will be promoted, where players can play against each other individually or as a team.
Both skill-based games and chance-based games fall under the scope of this bill. Now, understand the difference between them. Skill-based games are those like chess or rummy, or many other games where the outcome of the game depends on the players’ skills and strategy. If you know how to play well, you will win because you have that skill. Chance-based games are like lotteries, where the outcome comes like a lottery, which is either based on your luck or depends on coincidence. The player’s skill does not affect the game’s result, and in many countries, this is considered gambling.
Today, the country’s IT Minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, said that the government wants to help the gaming industry. But when there is a conflict between the industry’s profits and society’s interests, the Modi government will always take society’s side. Addiction is happening among people due to online money games. News comes from everywhere that a family’s entire savings went into gaming. There are extreme cases of suicide in many places.
Recently, an article was published in the Times of India: ’30 suicides in 31 days due to online gaming.’ In a way, this has become a gaming disorder, which the World Health Organization has also recognized as a public health issue and named it ‘online gaming disorder.’ Because of this, a serious problem has spread everywhere in society. Feedback is coming from everywhere. So, the interest of society, the interest of middle-class families, the interest of the youth is greater. With that sentiment, this bill was presented in the house today and passed in the Lok Sabha.
You must have seen big film stars, big cricket players advertising online money games. There are many mobile apps for cricket and other sports where you have to put money to create a team, and advertisements show that by putting in a little money, like ₹60, you can win crores of rupees. Lured by the greed of becoming a crorepati, common people in our country lose their hard-earned money in online money games. This is a form of gambling.
In India, about 59 crore people play online games. They incur a loss of ₹[00] crores every year (though this is the government’s estimate, and the actual figures could be much higher). This year, i.e., in the first 5 months of 2025, people in India spent an average of about ₹100 crores every month on online games. According to a survey, children from 9 to 17 years old are spending from 3 hours to 6 hours daily on online gaming platforms. And 50% of parents living in cities say that their children are now addicted to social media, OTT, and online gaming platforms; they have become addicted to them. You must have also seen such children around you who have now become addicted to online gaming, whose negative impact news you often get to read in newspapers; you keep seeing.
In Chennai, an eighth-grade student stole ₹12 lakh from his home to play online games with his friends. In Madhya Pradesh, a 17-year-old boy committed suicide after losing ₹35,000 in online games. In Karnataka, three people from the same family committed suicide after losing ₹80 lakh in online gaming. In Kaushambi, Uttar Pradesh, a mere 13-year-old boy left his home with ₹1 lakh worth of jewelry and money. Later, he told that after his parents stopped him from playing online games, he committed this theft.
The lure of rewards in online games is inciting small children to steal and leave home. And this is a very big challenge for the family, education, and law and order alike. Children are becoming aggressive. Children have become addicted. If you try to stop children from this today, it’s possible the children might start developing hatred towards their own family in their minds.
The government claims that because of online money games, people are losing a lot of money. Children’s minds are being adversely affected. Children are becoming aggressive. They don’t want to talk to their own parents. They are stealing their own parents’ money and playing online games. And after losing money in online games, there are many people who have committed suicide.
Now the question is, what will be the impact of the government’s decision on the online gaming industry? The online gaming market in India is very large, about ₹32,000 crores, and it could reach ₹[0000] crores by 2029. There are about 400 companies in India that create or operate these types of games. And according to an estimate, [₹] lakh people work in this industry. The government also gets about ₹[00] crores in GST from the online gaming industry. This means the new bill could affect lakhs of people, and the government could also face a loss of revenue.
The online gaming industry says that this ban will destroy their industry or will have a very bad impact, and people will get trapped in the web of illegal and foreign gaming platforms. When they won’t get to play here, they will play foreign online games. Despite this, the government has brought a bill to impose a ban on them. Because online gaming platforms are now being used for economic crimes, for money laundering, for funding terrorism, and are also being used to radicalize youth. In many places, it is even being used for religious conversion.
An investigation by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had revealed that money laundering was done through some online gaming platforms to fund terrorist organizations. In 2023, a parliamentary committee had warned that the lack of monitoring on gaming platforms is turning them into a medium for terrorist funding, and such platforms are also being used to recruit youth into extremist and terrorist organizations. According to a 2022 report, cases of economic fraud related to online gaming platforms increased by 55%. This means online gaming is now not just entertainment but has become a den of cyber fraud.
However, a debate is also going on that in today’s digital age, banning online money games is a very difficult task. Now it’s a matter of technology.
