The Upper House of the Indian Parliament , The Rajya Sabha has cleared the Online Gaming Bill on 21 August 2025 , which strictly Prohibits the operations of Real Money Gaming Application . This leads to complete ban on promotion , advertisement and facilitation of real Money games played online. Despite Immense protest by the opposition in the Parliament, which has alleged that the Bill was Passed without proper discussion and debate within the Assembly.
While tabling the bill in Rajya Sabha , Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw said: ” The Online Money Gaming is like drug Addiction ” .
It is believed that thousands of crores will be wiped out within a night , damaging India’s digital economy through the move . But the Government of India has opted for mental and financial well-being of the society amid increasing betting addition within youth’s and huge financial burden leading towards loss of lives via suicide.
The Bill seeks complete seizure of funds transfer from financial institutions and banks to any such gaming and betting platforms.
With the vocal vote , the Online Gaming Bill was passed in Rajya Sabha , just a day after cleared in Lok Sabha. The legislation seeks to make it a punishable offence which attracts imprisonment upto 3 years and/or a fine of upto Rs 1 Crore.
The bill further includes imprisonment up to two years and/or fine up to Rs 50 lakh for advertising of money games . Facilitating any financial transactions related to money games may also leads to imprisonment up to 3 years and/or fine up to Rs 1 crore. Repeat offender’s may attract increased penalties , including 3 to 5 year’s of imprisonment and fines up to Rs 2 crore , making serious offences cognizable and non-bailable.
PM Modi has also praised the Bill in a post on social media , encouraging E-Sports and online social gaming , which can save our society from the evil of quick money making online games.
This might be the end of popular Online Fantasy Gaming Platforms in India operating real money betting games , for example: Dream 11 , My 11 Circle , Rummy , Teen Patti , Poker , etc .
Some of the platforms has already announced their exit , while others are in the pipeline .
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