PROG Bill, 2025: Over 45 crore people affected by online money games; losses surge to Rs. 20,000 crore

Hyderabad: With 8.45 billion downloads, India saw the largest downloads of mobile games in the world last year. The Indian gaming market in 2024 was valued at $3.7 billion and is projected to grow to $9.1 billion by 2029 and the country comprises of 20% of total global online gaming user base, making it one of the largest in the world.

Dream 11 is India’s largest fantasy game with approximately 200-220 million registered users with an active 70 million users in 2024 and not only this, Dream 11 was also the most downloaded fantasy app with 44 million downloads in the world.

Clearly, the Fantasy games may have fantasized Indians, but the Parliament has pressed the reset button to counter the risks of dangers that come with the thrills of fantasy games.

The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, aims to promote and regulate the online gaming sector, including e-sports, educational games, and social gaming by providing coordinated policy support, strategic development, and regulatory oversight of the sector through the appointment of an Authority.

The Bill also prohibits the offering, advertisement, operation, facilitation, and participation in online money games by any individual, group, or company occurring through any mobile device or internet across state borders or foreign jurisdiction.

The baseline motive of this policy intervention is to safeguard the individuals, especially youth and vulnerable populations from social, economic, psychological and privacy related impacts of such games; to establish a national level regulated framework for nline gaming sector; to ensure responsible use of digital technologies; to safeguard the integrity of financial systems; and to maintain public order and protect public health.

Background

The 2010s have witnessed massive technological evolutions: breakthrough technological innovations, unprecedented technological advancements, and communication developments; transforming technology from a mere role of automation of tasks and efficiency to a creative economy - providing significant opportunities for cognitive development, employment generation, and global competitiveness.

The far-reaching consequences of this transformation have been profound and diverse and have resulted in the emergence of new forms of digital entertainment and competitive participation, most prominently in the form of online gaming.

The online gaming industry has grown rapidly into one of the most dynamic and fastest-growing segments, and given India’s large and growing pool of domestic market and young professionals with technological capabilities, the country stands at the intersection of assuming the role of a global leader and safeguarding its people.

At present, the sector operates without a dedicated and established institutional mechanism for strategic support, coordination, and capacity building, which in an otherwise situational would have ensured assured growth. Concurrently, the unchecked increase of online money games, which are easily accessible through mobile devices, offering monetary returns in exchange for deposited funds, has led to grave social, economic, and psychological consequences across the country, resulting in an increased incidence of fraud and exploitation.

The celebrity endorsement of online money gaming has further led to an exacerbation of the problem. While speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Ashwin Vaishnav, the Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, said that according to an estimate, 45 crore people are negatively affected by the online money games and a loss of more than Rs. 20,000 crores because of it.

Not only do online money games lead to addiction by encouraging compulsive playing, but they also lead to mental health issues or suicides in cases of heavy financial losses. Beyond individuals, these platforms have been further linked to illegal activities, including money laundering, financial fraud, and the financing of terrorism, as the online money gaming service providers often operate from offshore locations, circumventing state-specific regulations.

Thus, the online gaming sector takes the shape of K in the Indian context, where the upward arm of K signifies the scope of development of the online gaming sector into a creative economy hub on one hand, and the downward arm of K signifies the social and financial risks arising out of the absence of regulation and policy intervention.

Against the same backdrop, the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill was introduced by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, set to become effective from October 1st, 2025.

Categorization –

Before proceeding ahead with the key features of the Bill, it becomes imperative to highlight the fact that the Bill recognizes three kinds of online games as classified below –

1) E-sports is a part of multi–sports events, recognized under the National Sports Governance Act 2025. It is of a competitive nature and has a predefined set of rules in place. The outcome of e-sports is solely based on physical or strategic thinking and does not involve winning through bets or wagers.

2) Online Social Games – are those games that are solely offered for entertainment, recreational, or skill development purposes and are not online money games or sports.

3) Online Money Games – are those games that are played paying fees, depositing money, or other stakes in hope of winning money or other enrichments and these games are regardless of the fact whether these are based on skill, chance, or both, and will not include any e-sports.

Key Features

• Promotion and Regulation of Online Games – the Bill aims to promote, regulate, and develop the online gaming industry, including e-sports, social, and educational games, by establishing an institutional framework for policy support and strategic development.

• Prohibition of Online Money Game – the Bill prohibits offerings (by any service provider, including offshore providers); advertisements (by anyone, including elebrities); facilitation (by any bank or financial institution); and participation (by anyone) in online money games that involves monetary stakes, to safeguard all and especially youth and vulnerable groups from social and financial harm.

• Establishment of an Authority – the Bill empowers the Central Government to constitute an Authority or designate an Authority (existing) responsible for the policy support, management, regulation, recognition, registration, and oversight of the online gaming sector.

• Recognition and Promotion of e-sports – the Bill recognises e-sports as a legitimate form of competitive sport in India and aims to promote and develop it through public outreach programmes and establishments of training academies, research centres, and other institutions, respectively.

• Recognition and Development of Online Social Games – the Bill recognizes the Central Government to take steps as it deems necessary to recognise, categorise and register online social games with the Authority and aims to facilitate the development of online games for recreational and educational purposes.

Blocking of Online Money Gaming Services – in case of failure, the Bill enables the Central Government/ Authority (as the case may be) to block any information generated, transmitted, received, or hosted in relation to online money gaming services for access by the public.

• Offences and Penalties – the Bill provides for fines and imprisonment for violations of the provisions, such as operating a money bill or facilitating financial transactions related to such online money games.

• Implementation and Administrative Measures – the Bill grants the Central Government the authority to issue any direction in relation to online gaming services; to make rules to carry out the provisions of this Act; and, by order published in the official gazette, remove any difficulty arising in giving effect to a provision of this Act.

• Protection of Vulnerable Groups, Public Health and Security – the Bill aims at protecting the youth and vulnerable populations and ensuring responsible use of digital agency. It also aims to safeguard the public health and safety, the financial system, and national security from the adverse impact of it.

Key Issues

• Blanket Ban- the Bill defines, “online money game” means an online game, irrespective of whether such a game is based on skill, chance, or both.’ By banning both the Bill risks outlawing industries like Fantasy Sports, rummy, or poker, leading to substantial loss. This also however blurs the distinction between the games of skill and games of chance, which the Supreme Court of India has previously upheld as in the case of State of Andhra Pradesh v. K. Satyanarayana. Similarly the Hon’ble

Madras High Court in Junglee Games India Pvt. Ltd. v. State of Tamil Nadu (2021) held that a blanket ban on rummy and poker is unconstitutional as these are skill-based and cannot be placed at par with gambling.

• Enforcement Challenges – Even though Bill provides for the blocking of the services, many online money games operate from offshore jurisdictions, technical circumvention is easy, and could lead to the creation of a black-market economy rather than the elimination.

• Consumer Protection Gaps – though the bill aims to safeguard the consumer from the social and financial risk of online money games, it evidently lacks parameters such as age-verification mechanisms (to protect minors), self-exclusion systems, spending limits, and independent grievance redressal.

• Economic Trade-offs – As mentioned in the aforementioned paragraphs, India’s gaming industry is growing rapidly with a potential of making India a global leader in the sector; an outright prohibition on money gaming may scare the venture capital and global investors. This would also have an impact domestically and may result in loss of tax revenue and employment opportunities.

• Centralisation vs. Federalism – betting and gambling are State List Subjects; however, the bill empowers the Central Government to take complete power of the sector. States such as Karnataka, Meghalaya, and Tamil Nadu have their own gaming laws; under such circumstances, the central takeover may face constitutional challenges.

Recommendations -

• Clear establishment of Consumer Protection – the bill should clearly bring a framework to address the consumer protection gaps through age gating, self-exclusion, spending caps, and addiction warning systems. Such a mechanism will aid in better regulating the gaming industry while at the same time ensuring the protection of the people. The Authority (that is deemed to be constituted for regulation) would also help to identify the gaps and address them through policy intervention.

• Redefine the Definitions – The definition of the online money game could be redefined and revisited so that it can better align with the contemporary definition of the games of skill. Games of skill. If excluded from the definition, it would also help in averting the economic loss in terms of tax revenue, employment loss, and potential danger of the black market.

Instead of a blanket ban, the government may consider regulated licensing, which would help in better monitoring of the game with a strict framework in place at work as the sudden ban will disrupt the economy of the gaming industry, affecting those who are employed miserably.

• Centre – State Coordination – to better implement the policy and to attain the desired goal, a federal framework can be brought into place wherein the role and jurisdiction of the centre and the state are defined. The Centre may take up the role of licensing and technology, and others, and the State should be allowed to adapt the policy to their local conditions.

• Technology for the Enforcement – the enforcement challenges could be further addressed through geo-blocking, app/play store compliance, working with UPI, banks to whitelist only licensed operators, and through a cyber monitoring cell setup with the Authority.

About Author

Shristi Srivastava, masters in Public Policy from O.P. Jindal Global University.