{"id":777030591,"date":"2025-08-20T08:49:20","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T11:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777030591"},"modified":"2026-04-21T19:57:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T22:57:24","slug":"india-to-introduce-bill-to-ban-real-money-online-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/india-to-introduce-bill-to-ban-real-money-online-games","title":{"rendered":"India&#8217;s central government to introduce bill to ban real-money online games"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The draft bill proposes potential penalties of up to three years in jail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>India.- The central government is to consider India&#8217;s first national law on real-money online gaming. The Union Cabinet has cleared the Promotion &amp; Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, and it is expected to be introduced in Parliament shortly.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Reuters, the 13-page Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill 2025 drafted by India\u2019s IT ministry will ban real money play in online games, imposing penalties of up to three years in jail and fines. The bill defines an online money game as any digital game that involves the deposit of money or stakes with the expectation of winning money or rewards. It excludes eSports and social games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The proposed legislation seeks to address public concerns over gambling addiction, fraud and inconsistent regulation across <a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/indias-karnataka-state-to-draft-online-gaming-law-after-expert-panel-report\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Indian states<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last month, in a response to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament, Jitin Prasada, minister of State for Electronics &amp; IT, said that the Indian government had issued <a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/india-blocks-over-1500-illegal-gambling-sites-between-2022-and-june-2025\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/india-blocks-over-1500-illegal-gambling-sites-between-2022-and-june-2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">1,524 blocking directions<\/a> related to online betting, gambling and gaming websites and mobile applications between 2022 and June 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, India\u2019s Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoned senior executives from tech giants Google and Meta to appear for questioning on July 21 as part of a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/india-summons-google-and-meta-over-illegal-betting-probe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">major investigation into illegal online betting and money laundering<\/a>. The probe has already implicated celebrities, influencers and political figures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br><\/p>\n\n\n<div id=\"see-also-container\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"see-also-label\">See also:<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"related-article\">\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"related-article__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2021\/03\/Online-gambling-in-India-\u2013-governments-stand-on-online-gaming-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"related-article__text\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"see-also-label-strong\">See also:<\/span> <a href='https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/indias-karnataka-state-to-draft-online-gaming-law-after-expert-panel-report'>India&#8217;s Karnataka state to draft online gaming law after expert panel report<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The draft bill proposes potential penalties of up to three years in jail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":226,"featured_media":20588,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"India's Union Cabinet has cleared the Promotion & Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, proposing a national ban on real-money online gaming, excluding eSports and social games. This legislation, drafted by the IT ministry, introduces severe penalties, including up to three years in jail, aiming to standardize regulation and combat addiction and fraud. The move follows extensive blocking actions and an ongoing Enforcement Directorate investigation into illegal betting and money laundering.","focusai_entities":"Union Cabinet, Parliament, India's IT ministry, Reuters, Jitin Prasada, Lok Sabha, Enforcement Directorate, Google, Meta","focusai_location":"India, Karnataka","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (1.0), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (1.0), affiliate_publisher (1.0), product_ux (0.8), tech_data (0.9), marketing_crm (1.0), payments_fraud_aml (1.0), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (1.0), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Impact on existing operators?","query":"What specific provisions within the Promotion & Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, address the transition or cessation of operations for existing real-money online gaming entities, and what are the immediate compliance requirements?"},{"label":"Enforcement Directorate's scope?","query":"How will the Enforcement Directorate's ongoing investigation into illegal online betting and money laundering intersect with the new national legislation, particularly concerning retrospective application or expanded enforcement powers?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,158,16334],"tags":[58,225,20479],"class_list":["post-777030591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legislation-news","category-slider-home","category-south-asia-news","tag-india","tag-legislation","tag-online-gaming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777030591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777030591"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777030591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777030601,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777030591\/revisions\/777030601"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777030591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777030591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777030591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}