Rajya Sabha lawmakers passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, earlier today, as the bill cleared the hurdles of both the lower and upper Houses of Parliament.
It establishes a legal framework governing the online gaming sector, including e-sports and social games, while imposing strict prohibition on real money gaming (RMG) and gambling.
Defining “online money game” as any game in which a user places stakes with the expectation of winning, the act imposes a blanket ban on such games as well as their advertising. It also prohibits financial institutions from processing payments linked to online money gaming. However, the act excludes e-sports from this definition.
Consequently, the bill has caused consternation among stakeholders in the online money gaming space.
E-Gaming Federation:
Anuraag Saxena, CEO of the E-Gaming Federation, that seeks to voluntarily regulate the online gaming industry in India, asked the Government to have a balanced approach that distinguished between skill-based and chance-based games.
“Global experience shows that calibrated regulation delivers better outcomes than blanket restrictions, which can unintentionally nudge users towards unregulated offshore platforms,” Saxena said.
“The sector is already creating employment, fostering innovation, and contributing to the economy. Thoughtful regulation can amplify the positive impact while ensuring responsible and fair practices remain at the core,” he added.
Probo:
Anurag Dhandhi, Business Head at Probo, an opinion trading app that has reportedly shut operations in India, similarly asked the government for a “balanced” regulatory approach that recognised opinion trading as a skill-based activity.
“In India, opinion trading has been characterised as a game. However, in the United States of America, it has been regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a Designated Contract Market – or in layman’s terms – a financial market for information exchange and trading.
“At its very core, opinion trading (prediction markets) is a tool for economic insight, information aggregation, and forecasting that enables users to apply judgment, knowledge and analysis to real-world developments,” he said.
Game Developers Support The Bill:
On the other hand, companies making video games commended the bill for differentiating between real money games, and video games and e-sports.
The CEO of Dot9Games, Deepak Ail supported the bill, claiming that it allowed them to nurture original Intellectual Property (IP).
Further, Mansoor Ahmed, CEO of games-focused…
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