Centre to introduce law to prohibit real money gaming firms, official says 

The Union Cupboard on Tuesday (August 19, 2025) authorized a Invoice to successfully prohibit actual cash video games (RMGs) on-line, a multi-billion greenback business that counts fantasy sports activities platforms resembling Dream11 and card recreation apps, together with PokerBaazi. The Promotion and Regulation of On-line Gaming Invoice, 2025 is now headed to Parliament and is prone to be tabled on Wednesday.

The transfer was not telegraphed in any public manner by the federal government earlier than the Cupboard authorized it, with no draft Invoice circulated by the Ministry of Electronics and Info Know-how, as has been finished for quite a lot of notifications and the Digital Private Information Safety Act, 2023.

A replica of the Invoice considered by The Hindu lays out a broad definition for “on-line cash gaming,” concentrating on an unlimited swath of RMGs in a single fell swoop. Beneath this definition, “depositing cash or different stakes in expectation of profitable which entails financial and different enrichment in return of cash or different stakes” comes beneath on-line cash gaming, and is prohibited. 

Trade associations representing RMG companies didn’t have a remark to supply on the proposal and indicated that they’d reply formally when the Invoice is launched upon its tabling in Parliament. The companies keep intensive contacts with authorities officers and have resisted the federal government’s earlier makes an attempt to manage them. For example, within the months main as much as the GST Council’s choice to extend the tax relevant on RMG deposits, the business registered its opposition on a number of fronts.

On the State degree, business our bodies and particular person companies have efficiently obtained stays on bans on their operation, resembling in Karnataka. These authorized victories rested on a essential distinction between video games of ability and video games of probability, with solely the latter being recognised by courts as playing, which is a State topic within the Structure.

Now, that distinction might current an existential risk as an alternative of a lifeline to the business, as on-line gaming has been introduced beneath the executive authority of the IT Ministry, which can implement this prohibition. Beneath a 2023 modification to the IT Guidelines, 2021, the federal government sought to deliver the business beneath self-regulation, with oversight by an unbiased committee to deal with complaints. Nevertheless, no self-regulatory our bodies (SRBs) have been authorized by the federal government beneath that modification, with officers questioning proposed SRBs’ independence from the companies they have been alleged to be overseeing.

The Invoice creates a carve-out for the e-sports business, primarily permitting online game tournaments that gather entry charges to proceed doing so with out falling afoul of the RMG prohibition.