India’s gaming landscape just hit a regulatory earthquake. The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 (PROG Act), dropped comprehensive rules governing half a billion players and an industry worth billions. This isn’t minor policy tweaking—it’s a complete restructuring that bans entire categories of games while legitimizing others. Real-money poker rooms, fantasy sports platforms, and betting apps face extinction, while esports and skill-based gaming get government recognition. For players wondering what happened to their favorite apps and what protections they’re gaining, here’s the complete breakdown of India’s most significant gaming legislation ever enacted.
What Indian Players Actually Gain From PROG Act
The PROG Act introduces sweeping protections targeting addiction, fraud, monetary exploitation, and unregulated betting that plagued India’s gaming ecosystem for years. Every player must now undergo identity and age verification before accessing gaming platforms, eliminating underage participation that concerned parents and regulators. Gaming platforms face mandatory implementation of responsible gaming features, including time limits, self-exclusion options, and deposit caps to prevent addiction spirals.
A tiered complaint mechanism gives users accessible channels to report violations, grievances, or disputes with platforms directly to regulatory authorities. David Kumar, an industry analyst, explains the core motivation: “The Act protects players, especially youth, from predatory money gaming practices while promoting skill-based gaming as a legitimate pursuit.” Platforms complying with PROG Act standards get listed in a National Registry, giving players confidence they’re using safe, government-recognized games.
This registry functions as a whitelist—if your platform isn’t registered, it’s operating illegally and risks getting blocked entirely. The shift aligns India with global regulatory best practices while fostering skill-based competition and entertainment without exploitation risks. For casual gamers who never touched real-money games, life continues mostly unchanged but with stronger consumer protections backing their gameplay experience.
Games That Just Got Banned: The Real-Money Crackdown
The PROG Act draws an uncompromising line between permissible skill-based games and prohibited “online money games” involving real stakes or wagering. Any game where players stake real money, place bets, wager on outcomes, or expect monetary gains now faces outright prohibition. This ban hammer hits games previously operating in legal gray zones, including online poker platforms, real-money rummy apps, and Dream11-style fantasy sports.
Rajat Malhotra, advisor to the Ministry of Electronics and IT, clarified the government’s stance: “Games where players stake real money—and those blending chance and skill to offer financial gains—have been outlawed to shield players from exploitation.” The casualty list includes casino-style games, lottery apps, prediction markets, and any platform facilitating betting on sports outcomes or game results. Platforms offering or advertising banned games face severe consequences: up to three years’ imprisonment and fines reaching ₹1 crore for operators.
Regulatory authorities gained powers to block websites, suspend platforms, and seize assets connected to illegal gaming operations without lengthy court processes. Importantly, the ban targets the business model, not the gameplay itself—free-to-play versions of poker or rummy without monetary stakes remain legal. This distinction matters because it preserves games as entertainment while eliminating the gambling elements that create addiction and financial ruin.
The New Gaming Authority Running the Show
The PROG Act establishes the Online Gaming Authority of India, a powerful regulator with civil court-like powers overseeing licensing, classification, and enforcement nationwide. This Authority maintains the National Registry where all legal esports and social gaming platforms must register and periodically update game information. Registration validity extends up to five years, but any shift in revenue models—like introducing wagering features—triggers immediate suspension or cancellation.
The Authority conducts investigations, implements penalties, and collaborates with financial institutions to block money transactions for banned games at the source. Registration decisions follow a transparent, time-bound process, typically completed within 90 days, to minimize bureaucratic delays that could stifle legitimate businesses. The Authority’s jurisdiction extends beyond purely online spaces—it recognizes and sets guidelines for esports tournaments, training academies, and research centers, including in-person events. This regulatory framework creates accountability previously absent in India’s fragmented gaming landscape, where different states enforced conflicting rules.
Physical gaming events face scrutiny too, under older laws like the Public Gambling Act of 1867, which most states adopted. That colonial-era law criminalizes “common gaming houses” but explicitly exempts skill-based games, creating legal space for chess tournaments, esports competitions, and quiz events. The PROG Act reinforces this distinction while adding modern enforcement mechanisms suited to digital-age gaming.
Industry Response: Progress or Overreach?
The PROG Act triggered mixed reactions across India’s gaming community, splitting supporters who celebrate clarity from skeptics worried about compliance burdens. Supporters praise the formal recognition of esports and the unambiguous ban on exploitative money gaming, viewing it as a sustainable growth path attracting serious investors. Government backing for skill-based gaming legitimizes an industry that fought stigma for decades, potentially unlocking sponsorships, infrastructure investment, and talent development.
However, developers and platform providers express concerns that procedural requirements could stifle innovation and impose heavy compliance costs, especially on smaller studios. An industry veteran captured this tension: “The clarity on what constitutes legal games will weed out rogue operators, but registration and reporting rules need continuous refinement to keep pace with fast-evolving gaming landscapes.” Draft rules released for public comments through October 2025 indicate the government’s openness to stakeholder feedback before finalizing regulations. This consultation process matters because getting implementation details wrong could accidentally harm legitimate developers while failing to stop determined bad actors.
The Consumer Protection Act and Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) guidelines add additional compliance layers, ensuring event marketing, ticket sales, and prize descriptions follow fair practices. The PROG Act represents India’s most ambitious attempt to govern gaming comprehensively rather than leaving the sector in regulatory limbo.
By banning real-money gaming while legitimizing skill-based competition, the government chose consumer protection over industry revenue from gambling-adjacent business models. For India’s 500+ million players, this means safer environments, clearer rules, and government-backed esports recognition that could accelerate India’s competitive gaming scene globally. The ban on real-money games eliminates platforms that created addiction and financial devastation, even if it disappoints players who enjoyed those games responsibly.
Whether the PROG Act succeeds depends on implementation—whether the Online Gaming Authority can register legitimate platforms efficiently, enforce bans effectively, and adapt regulations as gaming technology evolves. For now, Indian gaming just entered a new era where the government isn’t just watching from the sidelines—it’s actively shaping which games survive and which disappear.
