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Polity & Governance
Mahesh

21/08/25 10:10 AM IST

Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025

In News 
  • The Union Cabinet has cleared the Promotion & Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025.
Major Provisions
  • The government will prohibit any person from offering online games in India, failing which they could be imprisoned for up to three years, and penalised Rs 1 crore.
  • Those promoting such platforms, such as social media influencers, will also face jail time of two years, and a penalty of Rs 50 lakh.
  • The government will also prohibit banks and financial institutions from facilitating financial transactions on such platforms.
  • The Bill applies to all online money gaming platforms irrespective of whether they are games of skill or chance, a distinction the industry had lobbied hard for in the past.
  • An “online money game” has been defined as a service played by a user by paying fees, depositing money or other stakes in expectation of winning which entails monetary and other enrichment in return of money or other stakes; but shall not include any e-sports. This is an expansive definition, and is likely to cover all major gaming platforms like Dream11, Winzo, MPL etc.
  • The government, though, is viewing competitive e-sports and game development as crucial drivers of the online gaming industry in the country, and via the proposed law, is keen to promote them.
  • As such, it wants to recognise e-sports as a legitimate form of competitive sport in the country.
  • The government will also help in the creation of platforms or programmes to support game development and distribution.
  • The Bill has envisioned the creation of a central authority to promote competitive e-sports, while ensuring overall compliance with the law.
  • The Centre will recognise, categorise and register “online social games” with the authority and facilitate the development and availability of such games for recreational and educational purposes.
  • These may have an option to accept payment in the form of a subscription fee or access fee, as long as it is not in the form of a stake or wager.
  • Similar to the approach the government has taken in its recent Income Tax Bill on digital search and seizures, the online gaming Bill too allows for authorised officials to carry out search operations at physical and virtual places, even without a warrant.
  • Any (authorised) officer…may enter any place, whether physical or digital, and search and arrest without warrant any person found therein who is reasonably suspected of having committed or of committing or of being about to commit any offence under this Act.
  • “Any place” includes any premises, building, vehicle, computer resource, virtual digital space, electronic records or electronic storage devices and the authorised officer can gain access to such computer resources by overriding any access control or security code.
Significance of the bill 
  • The Bill said that the unchecked expansion of online money gaming services has been linked to “unlawful activities including financial fraud, money-laundering, tax evasion, and in some cases, the financing of terrorism, thereby posing threats to national security, public order and the integrity of the State”.
  • The need for such a law arises from the “deleterious and negative impact of online money games on the individuals, families, society and the nation and given the technical aspects including the very nature of the electronic medium used for online money games, the algorithms applied and the national and transnational networks,”.
  • The parallel proliferation of online money games accessible through mobile phones, computers and the internet, and offering monetary returns against user deposits has led to “serious social, financial, psychological and public health harms, particularly among young individuals and economically disadvantaged groups,” it said, adding that such games often use “manipulative design features, addictive algorithms, bots and undisclosed agents, undermining fairness, transparency and user protection, while promoting compulsive behaviour leading to financial ruin”.
Source- The Hindu 

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