India’s PROGA 2025 bans real-money gaming, aligning with APAC’s stricter online gaming rules and signaling a new era of regulated digital play.
With PROGA 2025, India outlaws real-money gaming, reshaping its digital economy while driving a compliance-first shift across the APAC region.
India’s real-money gaming ban under PROGA 2025 triggers economic shifts, regulatory debates, and a stronger regional push for ethical digital gaming.
India’s comprehensive prohibition on real-money gaming within the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act (PROGA) 2025 is going to be a significant moment not just domestically, but throughout the Asia-Pacific (APAC) gaming jurisdiction. Following a trend of similar action in China, Indonesia, and South Korea, it shows a regional alignment towards stricter control of online gambling and money-based gaming.
While supporters celebrate the law as a necessary step to address gaming addiction and criminal financial flows, opponents argue that it will hamper innovation, drive migration to jurisdictions overseas, and affect the region's economic geography in relation to gaming.
The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, which commenced on October 2023, prohibits all real-money online games of chance and skill with monetary stakes. This policy includes fantasy platforms like Dream11, MPL, and WinZo.
Offenders face up to three years' jail and Rs. 1 crore in fines. In contrast, celebrity endorsers and social media influencers who promote any form of play involving monetary stakes can face two-year jail sentences and fines of Rs. 50 lakh.
The law also gives regulators expansive powers to conduct warrantless inspections, seize servers, and freeze accounts, indicating a zero-tolerance approach to the parameters specified in the law.
The government defended PROGA 2025 on the grounds of national security and public safety, mentioning the potential to misuse online gaming for the transfer of stolen money, which has occurred with cryptocurrencies for terrorist funding.
In addition, it is an apparent attempt to pivot the online gaming ecosystem to e-sports and ‘safe social games’, clearly signalling a recomposition of the way the Government of India is framing the digital gaming economy.
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In the two months following the bill's passage, the real-money gaming industry lost more than Rs. 7,440 crore in player deposits, and many platforms were shut down. Companies that previously relied on skill-based fantasy sports and poker have moved into new industries, such as digital entertainment or fintech-driven wealth management.
This also followed a previous hit to the industry in August, when a 28 percent Goods and Services Tax (GST) on the total value of bets took a large toll on profit margins, which was later superseded by the ban.
Legal experts are claiming the ban has created a legislative conundrum. It is effective at removing gaming based on monetary exchange, but simultaneously collapses an entire sector that has provided jobs, tax revenue, and foreign investment.
Industry advocates assert that self-regulation schemes should be considered instead of a ban, noting that banning will push Indian users to a non-regulated offshore gambling site, thus losing revenue and regulatory oversight.
India's firm policy is consistent with a regional tightening of gaming regulation in APAC. Authorities in China continue aggressive enforcement against online and overseas gambling, while Macau's gaming regulator has increased source-of-funds verification to counter money laundering.
Indonesia has launched broad campaigns to eliminate online betting, with law enforcement and digital monitoring fully on board. Even in the more liberal regimes of Singapore and the Philippines, new disclosure and compliance requirements to operate as a licensed operator have increased costs.
These growing regulations conform to a growing regional narrative that compares unregulated play to an economic and social risk. Countries considering a partial legalization scheme for casinos, like Thailand and Vietnam, have dampened enthusiasm by adding vetting and disclosure requirements.
Industry experts suggest these regulations could hint towards a new gaming era of compliance-first, where taxation, traceability, and responsible play take precedent over growth.
While platforms that utilize real-money gaming suffer, areas such as e-sports, educational gaming, and social play that do not use money should thrive. These are simple categories and legal in accordance with PROGA 2025, provided they have a license and charge an 18 percent GST on fees collected from the platform.
Indian e-sports federations already plan to collaborate with global tournaments to take advantage of regulation. APAC licensed operators are investigating cloud-based skill games and metaverse events that are compliant with the law and adequately transparent in places like Singapore and Japan.
Similarly, while regulatory shock provides challenges, it encourages innovation in technologies to promote “compliant gaming,” reg-tech, user verification technology based on blockchain, and AI-driven risk monitoring campaigns to develop new ecosystems of business, governance, and social safety.
While these developments are likely to be reactive to the challenges presented by regulation, there's a good chance they may be an opportunity for the APAC region to become a frontrunner in ethical and sustainable digital gaming practices.
Also Read: India Passes Online Gaming Bill 2025: Are Dream11 and MPL in Trouble?
India's gaming ban must not be viewed in isolation but as part of a global recalibration of digital entertainment economies. By putting safeguarding morals and consumer protection first, governments throughout the region are sending an unmistakable message that gaming's future must be marked by financial responsibility and social stability.
The unintended consequences of the ban, as shown through job losses, offshoring jobs, and the loss of innovation, point to the need to develop balanced regulatory frameworks in addition to prohibition.
Ultimately, India's decision highlights a philosophical shift: from a liberal approach to digital experimentation to a more regulated approach to digital sovereignty. As regulators across Asia tighten the screws, accountability is going to be a larger focus of the APAC gaming ecosystem.
Whatever the lessons from the new regulations are for investors or developers, one is clear: the era of unregulated real-money gaming is over, and adaptability will be required for the new order to be profitable.