New Delhi: The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, which completely bans real-money online gaming, didn’t take long to move through both houses of Parliament—72 hours—and received the President’s approval shortly after.
The passage of the bill sent shockwaves across India’s expanding online gaming industry, which has been thriving for years. The speed of its passage indicates that the legislation is more than just a procedural footnote—it is a powerful indication of the government’s commitment to regulating the industry.
Unlike other historic digital laws, such as the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, which required months of multi-stakeholder talks, the current legislation was designed and passed as a prohibition or non-negotiable check, confronting a perceived social threat arising from the online gaming industry.
Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw framed the law as a moral duty to protect people from what he called “societal malpractices” and “menace of online money games”, since such games not only make people lose money but also lead to addiction, and in some cases, suicide.
On the other side of this legislative chasm stands the online gaming industry, facing a potential existential threat.
All India Gaming Federation called the ban on real-money online games, whether based on skill or chance, and the prohibition on advertisements, as well as financial transactions on such platforms, a “death knell” for India’s online gaming industry.
ThePrint attempts to move beyond the headlines to analyse granular economic fallouts, key players’ corporate manoeuvres, ripple effects on the financial ecosystem, and an impending legal battle, which will define the future of India’s digital entertainment landscape.
Within hours of the bill receiving the presidential nod on 22 August, major platforms began shuttering their operations.
Dream11, which built its business on fantasy cricket and was the main sponsor of the Indian Premier League, stopped all real-money contests. MPL, Zupee, and Gameskraft followed suit—either completely shutting down or drastically scaling back their operations.
The stock market’s reaction to the bill was fierce, with Nazara Technologies emerging as the poster child for investor panic. The company’s shares plummeted down 23 percent since the speculations on the bill began, wiping out hundreds of crores in market capitalisation. On 25 August, Nazara’s stock hit a three-month low of Rs 1,108—down from its 52-week high of Rs 1,453 on 13 August. But, a day later, the stock recovered a little.
The ace investors in the company also suffered losses. Following the bill’s approval by the Lok Sabha on 20 August, the steep decline in Nazara Technologies shares resulted in a combined Rs 100 crore mark-to-market loss for ace investors Nikhil Kamath and Madhusudan Kela in just four trading sessions between 20 August and 25 August.
Much earlier, Rekha Jhunjhunwala had sold her Rs 61.08 lakh worth of shares, representing 7.06 percent of the company, and exited Nazara on 13 June. Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, of late, attacked Jhunjhunwala for insider trading, which, Moitra claimed, led to Jhunjhunwala’s early exit from Nazara Technologies.
The carnage was immediately after the bill surfaced.
Nazara’s shares dropped 6.87 percent on 20 August when the Lok Sabha approved the draft legislation, followed by successive days of losses, 11.18 percent on 21 August, and another 3.29 percent on 22 August, when the Rajya Sabha passed the bill, according to the Indian online trading and stock broking company, Angel One.
Moonshine Technologies, which operates PokerBaazi, ceased offering real-money gaming operations on 22 August to adhere to the new regulations—a move that had a significant impact on the company’s revenue, but now, it is exploring alternative options.
Nazara Technologies, which held a 46.07 percent stake in Moonshine Technologies, however, stated that it does not expect a “material adverse impact” on its operating financials from the real-money gaming ban while indicating that it will evaluate what to do about its investment in Moonshine.
The fallout on India’s online gaming industry
The online gaming sector in India was a high-growth segment of the country’s digital economy, valued at more than Rs 31,000 crore, with nearly 86 percent of the revenue coming from the real-money gaming format. It was estimated to be valued at Rs 66,000 crore by 2028, with a compound annual growth rate of 14.5 percent. However, this estimation was made before the passage of the Online Gaming Bill, 2025.
The vibrant ecosystem of India’s online gaming sector supported over 2,00,000 jobs across more than 400 companies and had attracted Rs 25,000 crore in foreign direct investment until June 2022. The new legislation, however, risks all investment and growth. Industry projections are stark, with warnings of thousands of potential job losses and expected shutdown of hundreds of startups.
The move threatens not only the direct gaming industry but also a sprawling network of allied sectors.
As Karnataka IT Minister Priyank Kharge critically noted, the bill is a “knee-jerk reaction” and could “damage India’s digital economy”, negatively impacting ancillary businesses, such as data centres, advertising, and cybersecurity.
The erosion of FDI, on the other hand, sends a chilling message to domestic and foreign venture capitalists, raising the perceived risks of investing in any digital-first, consumer-facing sector in India. The unpredictability of such a severe legislative move raises questions about the stability of the entire digital market.
Also Read: Karnataka govt’s online betting ban draft bill skipped consultations with IT dept
The domino effect: Case study of Dream11-IPL deal
The largest companies in the sector were forced to make swift and significant adjustments to their business models due to the bill’s quick enactment.
The swift move taken by Dream Sports, the parent business of Dream11, one of the most well-known fantasy sports platforms in the market, was arguably the most obvious indication of the bill’s impact. Dream11 was compelled to halt all ‘Pay to Play’ competitions and paid fantasy sports on its platform, following the passage of the bill.
A company notice to users stated, “cash games and contests have been discontinued” and that “your account balance is safe and available for you to withdraw from the Dream11 app”, a clear signal of the end of its core business model.
One of the most profitable sponsorship agreements in Indian sports history was quickly and definitively terminated as a result of this corporate change. The Dream11 logo placed on the Indian cricket team’s shirts as part of a three-year, Rs 358 crore contract was formally terminated by the Board of Control for Cricket in India. The deal’s termination is more than just a straightforward contractual issue; it is a significant financial and symbolic setback that highlights the bill’s broader impacts.
The termination of this high-profile partnership and the public statement by BCCI Secretary Devajit Saikia that the organisation would “not indulge with any such organisations in future”, however, adds a powerful moral weight to the ban, making it difficult for other major sports bodies to partner with similar companies.
Ripple effect on taxation, fintech & allied sectors
The economic impact of the ban extends far beyond the gaming companies themselves, hitting the financial and technology infrastructure that supported them.
The government’s decision to ban the industry—a significant tax contributor—represents a political choice to prioritise a social objective over a clear and quantifiable economic one. Industry leaders, such as taxation and legal experts, warned that the bill would cost the exchequer an estimated Rs 15,000-20,000 crore in lost tax revenues annually.
The most immediate financial ripple effect will be on the digital payments ecosystem. According to data from the National Payments Corporation of India, the real-money gaming industry processed nearly 400-500 million monthly UPI (Unified Payments Interface) transactions, accounting for 2.8 percent of the platform’s total volume of transactions. While this volume accounts for only 0.5 percent of the total value of UPI transactions, the ban will have a disproportionate impact on specific payment aggregators.
The gaming sector accounted for nearly 10 percent of the topline revenue for several payment aggregators, including Razorpay, Cashfree and PayU. The ban could result in a hit of up to Rs 30,000 crore in annual transaction volumes, and a revenue dip of as much as 10 percent for these firms, according to broad industry projections.
The discrepancy between the small percentage of overall UPI value, and the significant revenue hit to specific payment companies reveals a hidden pattern—real-money gaming was a high-volume, high-margin vertical for these specialised fintechs. This is not a broad hit to the digital payments ecosystem but a surgical strike on a profitable niche.
While some payment gateway spokespersons have downplayed the impact, claiming online gaming represents only a “minor portion”of their portfolio, anonymous statements from industry insiders speak of significant pressure on their earnings and a huge loss in payment volumes.
Beyond payment firms, the ban is also unravelling a less visible but equally important ecosystem—Regulatory Technology (RegTech) startups. These firms relied on real-money gaming companies for a significant portion of their revenue by providing mandatory services, such as video KYC and user verification.
Due to the legislation, this source of income will now “completely disappear”, requiring these firms to look for alternative business opportunities, said a New Delhi-based financial analyst, who did not wish to be named.
The legislation intended to ensure public safety has rendered the same technology—developed to make real-money gaming safe and lawful—outdated, underscoring the vulnerability of specialised tech ecosystems, which are centered around a single, although lucrative, business.
Also Read: Banning RMGs could end up like Bihar’s prohibition. Poor will suffer most
Political pushback; online gaming industry outcry
The government’s official rationale for the bill is a dual one—protection and promotion.
The law, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi has praised, is intended to shield society from the “harmful effects of online money games” while also serving as a significant catalyst for the growth of online social games and e-sports. To encourage the development of e-sports as a respectable competitive sport, the government has laid out plans to establish training academies, research facilities and incentive programmes.
Critics caution this prohibitionist strategy runs the risk of a “moonshine” effect—a side effect of outright prohibitions—under which, the government gives uncontrolled, offshore platforms dominance while dismantling the regulated domestic market. The international platforms, often headquartered in China and Eastern Europe, lack protections—tax payment, Know Your Customer compliance, or a clear legal path for users who lose money.
Therefore, the legislation—put in place to safeguard the public and the economy—ironically may increase financial crime, data theft and the amount of tax money lost to illegal black-market activities. So, the new legislation will likely place a heavy burden on law enforcement, taking resources away from other severe crimes to monitor intricate cryptocurrency transactions and pursue and prohibit innumerable foreign websites.
States, such as Karnataka, Telangana and Sikkim, where online gaming had been a vibrant employer party, are resisting the Online Gaming Bill, 2025. Kharge, IT Minister of Karnataka, warned that the disruption could “damage India’s digital economy and undo years of progress in tech-led job creation”.
‘Not gambling’: Possibility of a legal battle
The story, however, is far from over.
According to a report in NDTV, major platforms, led by Dream11, MP, and Zupee, are preparing a joint writ petition in the Supreme Court to challenge the constitutional validity of the ban on real-money online gaming.
Their argument: games such as fantasy cricket are based on skill, not chance, and have previously been upheld by several High Courts as “not gambling”.
To continue operations during the busiest cricket seasons, especially with ICC Champions Trophy 2026 approaching, the corporations are expected to look for temporary relief.
India’s digital gambling business would be left in a legal limbo for months if the court case drags on, as is likely. This would put investor patience and regulatory certainty to the test.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
Also Read: Game over for online gaming? How courts, state laws dealt with long-running ‘skill vs chance’ debate