India has outlawed games played for money
India had a large, fast-growing market for online games played for money, such as fantasy cricket and rummy. In August 2025 parliament banned them all. It is a rare test of what happens when a government removes a whole category of games.
What is real-money gaming?
Real-money gaming means playing for actual cash: you put money in, and you might win money back. In India, the biggest version of this is fantasy sports, where players build imaginary teams from real athletes and get paid based on how those athletes perform in real games.
Where it stands
The law took effect on 1 May 2026, but operators closed their paid games within days of its passage in August 2025, as banks and payment companies cut them off. Dream11 said 95% of its revenue had gone, and Games24x7 laid off about 70% of its staff. The operators' challenge to the law is before the Supreme Court. Lumikai estimates that one in three players moved to offshore sites, a figure its own reporters treat as soft.
Timeline
2023
A 28% tax on every deposit lands first
From October 2023 India charges its 28% goods and services tax on the full amount a player deposits, not on the operator's cut. The industry's yearly survey by FICCI and EY finds revenue from games played for money falling 6% in 2024, to 179 billion rupees.
2025
India's lower house passes a ban on online games played for money
The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill passes the Lok Sabha on 20 August and becomes law within days. Offering a money game carries up to three years in prison and a fine of 10 million rupees. Promoting one carries up to two. TechCrunch puts the affected companies' combined revenue at about $3.6 billion and their combined valuation at $23 billion.
Dream11's founder says 95% of its revenue is gone
Harsh Jain, who runs Dream11, the largest fantasy sports company, says the law has removed 95% of its revenue and all of its profit. He promises there will be no layoffs.
Games24x7 lays off about 500 people
Games24x7, which runs the rummy and fantasy apps RummyCircle and My11Circle, prepares to lay off about 500 staff, roughly 70% of its workforce. It is one of several operators to make deep cuts within weeks of the law passing.
Investigators raid gaming firms and arrest WinZO's founders
India's financial crime agency searches real-money gaming companies in November, freezes 5.23 billion rupees, most of it WinZO's, and arrests WinZO's two founders.
Dream Sports splits itself into eight companies
Dream11's parent company breaks into eight independent units. About 800 of Dream11's roughly 1,000 staff move to the new units, and the company says the new Dream11 needs fewer than 200 people.
2026
Five months on, the law is still not in force
Storyboard18 reports in January that the government has not yet brought the Act into force. The operators had already stopped: they shut their paid games voluntarily, and banks and payment companies had cut them off. One, Head Digital Works, has gone from 606 staff to 178.
The law takes effect, with a new regulator
The government publishes the rules in April, and the Act and the rules come into force on 1 May 2026. They create the Online Gaming Authority of India, which registers games and decides which category each falls in.
The Supreme Court calls staked online games betting and gambling
In a separate tax case, the Supreme Court rules that online games played for stakes are betting and gambling, and that the 28% tax applies to full deposits. Outlook Business puts the tax demands for past years that now stand at nearly 2.5 trillion rupees.
Dream11 ends its last paid contests
A year after the law passed, Dream11 stops running paid contests altogether, refunds subscriptions within 72 hours, and says it will focus on fan content and social play.
India's competition regulator closes WinZO's case against Google
WinZO had complained in 2022 that Google's app store admitted fantasy sports and rummy but not other money games. It asks to withdraw, and the Competition Commission closes the case without ruling on it. The ban, the order says, has left no lawful real-money gaming market on Google Play or Google Ads.
The tax council meets and leaves the industry's old tax bills alone
India's GST Council meets on 8 October 2026, the meeting the industry had expected to take up the legacy tax demands against real-money gaming operators. Its published recommendations cover registration, returns, refunds and adjudication, and do not mention gaming, betting or actionable claims. The demands stand, against companies that can no longer legally take the bets they are taxed on.
Recommendations of the 57th Meeting of the GST Council, Press Information Bureau (8 October 2026)
Consequences
012026
A third of players may have gone to offshore sites
Lumikai, an Indian games investor, reports that one in three people who played for money moved to offshore platforms after the ban, spending up to 10,000 rupees a month with no regulator watching. The industry had warned of exactly this before the law passed.
022026
The rest of Indian games is growing
With money games gone, Lumikai sizes what remains of India's games market at $1.5 billion for 2025, up 17%. Some studio heads argue the ban lets Indian developers concentrate on making games people pay for and come back to.
032026
An industry that can no longer trade still owes the tax
Companies that cannot legally earn still face tax claims for earlier years that run into tens of thousands of crores of rupees, meaning hundreds of billions. One operator, Gameskraft, carries demands of roughly 210 billion rupees.
042026
Other disputes collapse along with the market
The competition case against Google shows how far the effects reach. The regulator found it could no longer order Google to carry apps that are now illegal, so a four-year dispute ended with no finding either way.
Objections
Counterpoint2026
The government argues the losses were the point
This page mostly counts what the ban cost. The government's case is that the cost was worth paying. It told the Supreme Court that the sector involved foreign-controlled companies, opaque algorithms and manipulative design that threatened public order, financial integrity and vulnerable users. One petition before the court alleges 1,023 suicides linked to online betting in a single state, Telangana.
Counterpoint2025
The sector was already shrinking, and nobody agrees how big it was
Revenue fell 6% in 2024, before any ban, after the tax change. And the size of what was lost is disputed: FICCI and EY count 179 billion rupees in 2024, about $2.1 billion, where TechCrunch cites $3.6 billion. Nobody has published a figure for revenue or tax collected since the ban.
Counterpoint2026
The offshore figure is an estimate
Outlook Respawn notes that Lumikai's one in three is inferred, from a panel of about 100,000 phones, the use of browsers that hide a user's location, and traffic to offshore sites. Its own write-up says players 'may have migrated'.
What to watch
2026
Whether the tax council returns to the legacy dues
The GST Council met on 8 October 2026 and its recommendations covered process reforms alone, with no mention of gaming, betting or actionable claims. The legacy tax demands against the operators are still outstanding and the Council has published no date for taking them up.
Recommendations of the 57th Meeting of the GST Council, Press Information Bureau (8 October 2026)
2027
The first full year without money games
March 2027, when the FICCI and EY survey usually appears. It will carry the first figures for a full year with no legal real-money gaming. The Supreme Court's ruling on whether the ban is constitutional is also pending, with no date set.
Further reading
- ReportingIndia bans real-money gaming, threatening a $23 billion industrytechcrunch.com
- ReportingChallenge to the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025scobserver.in
- ReportingCCI Closes Winzo's Google Antitrust Case After Money Gaming Banrespawn.outlookindia.com
Where to follow it Reuters India tech desk, MediaNama, AGB (Asia Gaming Brief), Indian Supreme Court proceedings
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