Government Moves To Ban Online Money Gaming Over Addiction, Laundering, Terror Funding
Government Moves To Ban Online Money Gaming Over Addiction, Laundering, Terror Funding
The legislation, titled The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, was introduced on Wednesday in the Lok Sabha by Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
Indian lawmakers have introduced a bill in parliament seeking to outlaw online money gaming, citing rising cases of addiction, financial fraud, tax evasion, and alleged links to terror financing.
The legislation, titled The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, was introduced on Wednesday in the Lok Sabha by Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
It seeks to prohibit the promotion and operation of gaming applications that require users to stake real money for the chance to win cash prizes, according to Bloomberg.
If passed, the law will deal a heavy blow to India’s fast-growing $3.8 billion gaming industry, which has attracted major foreign investors and nurtured homegrown fantasy betting giants such as Dream11, Games24x7, and Mobile Premier League (MPL).
Already, the announcement has rattled the markets. Shares of gaming-linked companies plunged on Wednesday, with Nazara Technologies Ltd. — an investor in PokerBaazi — tumbling as much as 7 percent, its steepest fall in seven months. Casino operator Delta Corp also slipped nearly 7 percent before paring losses.
The bill further proposes the establishment of a regulator to oversee e-sports, social gaming, and educational platforms.
However, it must still be approved by the upper house of parliament and signed by President Droupadi Murmu before becoming law.
Lawmakers pushing the bill argued that an outright ban would be more effective than piecemeal regulation, accusing gaming platforms of employing “manipulative design features and addictive algorithms” that have ruined many households financially. They also flagged findings linking several operators to offshore networks engaged in money laundering, tax evasion, and terror funding.
But the Indian gaming industry has warned that the move could prove catastrophic.
In a joint letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the All India Gaming Federation, E-Gaming Federation, and the Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports described the proposed legislation as a “death knell” for legitimate businesses.
“The only beneficiary of this bill will be the illegal offshore gambling operators,” the groups wrote. “If legitimate Indian businesses are shut down, unregulated actors will fill the vacuum.”
This latest crackdown comes on top of the government’s earlier imposition of a 28 percent goods and services tax (GST) on online gaming and casinos in 2023 — a move that industry leaders had already described as a major setback.
