India Gaming reboot: At a cultural crossroads

The Online Gaming Bill's huge reset makes an industry built in disruption rethink what digital gaming means for a changing India.

Last week, India made the most dramatic of pivots by authorizing The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, to enact new federal legislation prohibiting Real Money Games (RMG).

Before the week was up, the Union Cabinet and Lok Sabha approved a law that was worked in the shadows by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

The Bill was a surprise to all Indian gaming stakeholders in the run-up to publication. Speculation was rife as to the Bill's content and whether the government had opted for an absolute prohibition of RMG, or whether it would again seek to amend 'money gaming' findings.

Rakesh Maheshwari,
The new Online Gaming Bill was so broad that it astonished even those who knew the corridors of power. Rakesh Maheshwari, former Policy Director of MeitY, told SBC that he was surprised by the final features of the law.

“It is a surprise for all of us,” Maheshwari said. “Only games of chance were to be prohibited under a central law and games of skill were expected to be regulated.

The discussion so far has been about the government creating a legal framework to assist India’s multi-billion-dollar gaming industry survive, and to help authorities adopt common standards across the patchwork of regulations governing online platforms.

It is surprising that this law should now seek to criminalize any type of real money gaming especially because the judicial consensus has been long-standing that distinguishes skill-based games from gambling. Maheshwari said 

It is a dramatic, unanticipated change in the way regulators think to have a core legislation suddenly and without wider industry involvement or public discussion overrule this norm. “We were expecting a framework for oversight, not a complete ban.”

The Bill, which aims to “regulate, promote and develop India’s online gaming sector including e-sports, educational and social games”, is seen as the first formal move by the federal government to regulate Indian gaming by excluding RMG. Surprisingly to many, games of skill, once protected by the constitution, are now banned if there is any monetary stake involved.

The legal framework for RMG prohibition will be examined by gaming stakeholders in Chapters 5 to 7 of the Bill. The Bill defines RMG as: “any online game, whether based on skill or chance or both, played by a user on payment of a fee, depositing money or other stakes in expectation of winning, involving monetary or other enrichment in return.”

India… zeroes in on chance amid uncertainty 
Gaming in India is once again facing a status quo fall-out and we are reminded this is a sector formed in dispute, one in which enterprises have had to constantly reinvent themselves to fit evolving legislative limitations. The new challenge, a comprehensive ban on Money Games, will be the most damaging yet. But if there is one sure, Indian gaming is no stranger to recalibration.

By Ranjana Adhikari
“Despite the far-reaching restrictions, the resilience and adaptability of the sector provide reasons for cautious optimism,” says Ranjana Adhikari, Partner, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co.

“There is a huge demand for gaming and entertainment content in the country and that’s not going away anytime soon, let’s not forget that,” she told audiences during an SBC Webinar immediately after the bill’s release.

Adhikari highlighted to the current foundation of over 400 start-ups in the Indian gaming industry, many of which have already encountered regulatory barriers including the onerous 28% GST imposition on online gambling in 2023. “Companies could rapidly pivot, recalibrating their tax strategies and product lines without losing market momentum in many instances,” she said.

Now, the studios are actively considering Plan B and Plan C, looking at legal alternatives and new monetization models that fit within the new boundaries. “The key priorities for these businesses will be to protect brand equity and user bases, while managing a landscape where revenue generation will need to be more closely tied to subscription models, in-app purchases and non-monetary competition,” Adhikari said.

“Would it make a difference? "Yes, at first," she admitted. But is it all gone? No. Innovation here is not just reactive, it is cultural. We have previously seen the Indian gambling business shift swiftly to any interference.

It has done so despite tax problems, advertising limits and frequent regulatory scrutiny. The difference with this sector is that the innovation is not simply reactive, but cultural. It’s baked into the way studios create experiences, communicate with users, and adjust to new rules of play. That mentality will get the sector through this moment, even if it looks quite different on the other side.”

There is no way we can use copycat models. 
Jaydeep Chakravartty, Engineer and Gaming Consultant at the coalface feels that Indian stakeholders should remain positive. But he points out that the route set out by the new Bill is a far tougher one to follow.

In the past, most gaming companies have been able to adapt to tax hikes or compliance restrictions like as the 2023 GST rollout by tweaking the mechanics of their games. But, says Chakravartty, this law is of a quite different type. It does not create additional taxes or rules under the RMG category – it eliminates the category completely.

Jaydeep Chakravartty
“This is not some regulation that requires minor changes,” said Chakravartty. “This is a total redefinition of what is legal and what is not. It’s not just a case of tweaking pricing or payout mechanisms—you need to re-engineer your game, your monetization flow, your platform architecture from the ground up. “It’s a product refresh.”

“This is a total ban on core real money offerings, particularly for platforms in fantasy sports, rummy, poker — genres that have formed the backbone of Indian online gaming revenue,” he said. “There’s room to pivot, sure, but the ceiling on monetization is going to be much lower under the permitted formats like social or subscription-based gaming.

“The depth of the Bill and the prohibitive clauses in it, are forcing studios and platforms to not just change business models but re-assess viability itself,” said Chakravartty.

It's not zero revenue, but it's a different kind of business. “The scale, the user acquisition models, the player motivation — all of that is different,” Chakravartty added. “We’re talking about creating a new market from nothing, in a legal box that’s still being defined.”

Asked whether India may adopt the US-style gaming model, with studios providing event contracts, prediction markets or sweepstake-based games as workarounds to gambling rules, Chakravartty was quick to shoot down the notion.

“That kind of model is so entrenched in US gaming culture and legal history — there is no equivalent sweepstakes tradition in India,” said he. “More importantly, the bill here is very clear in prohibiting monetization that is tied to chance or reward, however creatively it is framed. “So you can’t just copy and paste a US workaround and think it’s going to be okay legally.”

Chakravartty warned that innovation is feasible but that it must be grounded in India’s regulatory, cultural and judicial context and not imported from models created for wholly other legal ecosystems.

“There’s no shortcut here. Companies will need to reconsider product design not only technically, but also legally and culturally. And they will have to do it with a moving goalpost as the government and new authority start to issue clarifications.”

The end goal is a calmer state 
Given the seismic consequences of the new Online Gaming Bill, it is far too early to tell if this legislative revision will be considered as a success — or as an overcorrection that inhibited innovation.

Ranjana Adhikari cautioned against making conclusions on the bill’s early days success. “The law, she said, requires structural reforms at a deeper level, not just from RMG (real money gaming) platforms but the entire gaming ecosystem – including advertisers, payments providers, streaming platforms and consumer engagement models.

"We still have a lot of contours to work out even within the so-called permissible categories like social gaming or eSports," Adhikari said. “Studios are going to have to be innovative, yes, but they’re also going to have to work with the government to define what is compliant. You don't judge that sort of shift in weeks - it's going to take years."

In the end, the effect of this bill on Indian gaming will not just be decided by legal battles and market shifts, but by the government’s ability to create an ecosystem that encourages innovative, ethical and sustainable digital play.

Rakesh Maheshwari was optimistic and cautious at the same time, as the criteria have now been created to lay the foundation for Indian gaming to eventually move away from its continually disruptive status.

In the short term, absolutely, there will be disruption. “But I think over time, this bill will build the foundation for a gaming industry that is culturally aligned and innovation-driven,” he said. Laws might seem prohibitive today but if implemented in a transparent and agile way, they could create a new sort of gaming economy – one that balances growth with responsibility.

The legacy of this landmark bill will be decided at the end of the decade, on whether that balance is ultimately achieved and whether the Indian market becomes more cohesive, ethical and innovative.”