Online Casinos in India

Online Money Games Are Banned Across India

India's position changed completely in 2025. Akashvani News, the national broadcaster's news service, reports that the "Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act 2025 prohibits harmful online money gaming services, advertisements, and financial transactions related to these games and encourages e-sports and online social games." It adds that "The Act has a provision for a complete ban on offering, operating, or facilitating online money games." The ban does not turn on the old skill-versus-chance argument. Reporting the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Rules, 2026, Akashvani News states that "The new framework introduces a complete ban on online money games, including those based on chance, skill, or a mix of both." The Rules also prohibit "their advertisement and financial transactions linked to such platforms".

MyGov, the Government of India's own platform, lists what the ban covers in plain words:

• "No betting, gambling, fantasy sports, poker, rummy, lotteries."
• "No ads. No UPI/bank transactions."

The same page records the penalties:

• "Offering money games: Up to 3 years jail + ₹1 crore fine."
• "Advertising them: 2 years jail + ₹50 lakh fine."
• "Financial transactions: 3 years jail + ₹1 crore fine."
• "Repeat offenders (under sub section 1 & 3): Up to 5 years jail + ₹2 crore fine."

It adds that "Offences under sections 5 & 7 shall be cognizable and non-bailable."

How the Act Reached the Statute Book

The measure went through Parliament in August 2025: "Parliament has passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, with the Rajya Sabha approving it today." Assent followed, and "President Droupadi Murmu has given her assent to the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill." The case made for it was a public health one: "Moving the Bill, Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said online money gaming has become a public health menace." The Minister also described the structure of the law — "Mr. Vaishnaw highlighted that the bill has three segments namely E sports, online social games and online money games." It continues: "He said, government will promote E sports and online social gaming." So this is a prohibition on one segment inside a framework that promotes the other two, not a ban on online gaming as such.

The Regulator: The Online Gaming Authority of India

The Rules created a single national body. "The Rules establish the Online Gaming Authority of India as a unified regulator under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology." Its membership was then notified: "The government has constituted the Online Gaming Authority of India, comprising six members." A gazette notification of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology makes an "Additional Secretary of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology as Chairperson", and the other five are "Joint Secretaries from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Information and Broadcasting, Youth Affairs and Sports, Department of Financial Services, and Department of Legal Affairs." Its functions are listed in these terms: "The function of the authority will include categorising and registering online games, deciding whether a game qualifies as a money game, and addressing public grievances." Licensing online casinos is not among those functions, and the Act bans offering online money games outright.

Enforcement Is Running

Blocking is the main instrument so far, and Akashvani News has reported figures. "Government has blocked 300 illegal gambling and betting websites and applications as part of a continued crackdown on unlawful online gaming activities." The categories are named: "Sources at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said that the platforms include online sports betting websites, online casinos offering slots, roulette and live dealer tables, as well as betting exchanges that function as peer-to-peer marketplaces." The cumulative total reported is larger — "Sources added that a total of around 8,400 such websites have been blocked so far." — and most of it is recent: "It further said that the majority of these, nearly 4,900, were taken down after the passage of the Online Gaming Act." Those totals are attributed by Akashvani News to ministry sources rather than to a published register, and are given on that basis.

Money Leaving India

A second restriction sits alongside the gaming law and predates it. The Reserve Bank of India states that "In terms of Section 5 of the FEMA, persons resident in India are free to buy or sell foreign exchange for any current account transaction except for those transactions for which drawal of foreign exchange has been prohibited by Central Government, such as remittance out of lottery winnings; remittance of income from racing/riding, etc., or any other hobby; remittance for purchase of lottery tickets, banned / proscribed magazines, football pools, sweepstakes, etc.;" and that under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme there is no "Remittance for any purpose specifically prohibited under Schedule-I (like purchase of lottery tickets/sweep stakes, proscribed magazines, etc.) or any item restricted under Schedule II of Foreign Exchange Management (Current Account Transactions) Rules, 2000." Among the remittances that list names are those out of lottery winnings, of income from racing/riding, and for lottery tickets, football pools and sweepstakes; these were already prohibited before the Online Gaming Act added its own prohibition on financial transactions.

The State Law Layer

Older guides to gambling in India describe a patchwork of state statutes and lean on the Public Gambling Act of 1867. What state law says is not established. For online money games, the central Act's ban on offering, operating or facilitating online money games is a complete one.

Does a Player Commit an Offence?

This is the question a reader in India actually has, and it is not settled. Every penalty stated above is drawn from the Government’s own account of the Act, and each one is addressed to someone on the supply side: offering a money game, advertising one, or handling the money behind one. Playing is not among them. That is a real and relevant fact — but it is a fact about what the Government chose to summarise, not about what the Act’s offence provisions say, and the two are not the same thing.

The Government’s own explainer of the Bill states, as quoted above, that offences under sections 5 and 7 are cognizable and non-bailable. So offences under those two sections are serious ones — cognizable and non-bailable means police may arrest without a warrant and bail is not available as of right. What those two sections actually say about a player is not established. Whether their operative verbs stop at the supply side or reach a person who plays is the whole question.

So playing should not be taken as safe, and it should not be taken as an offence. Either would be a guess about something that could put a player in front of a court.

Two further things a reader should know. The Act was issued with corrigenda, so any version of the text has to be checked against them. And what state gambling law says, including whether any state's law reaches the player, is not established.

Whether the Rules place any duty on a player is not established either. Until the full text of the offence sections, the Rules and your own state's law answer it, the position is unsettled.

What Follows From the Prohibition

Several things follow from a national prohibition. A licence held in another country should not be taken as making a site lawful to use in India — the Act prohibits offering, operating and facilitating online money games, and advertising them is a separate offence. India's position on the sweepstakes casino model is not established. No gambling-specific national helpline is listed on the sources cited. The national mental health helpline, Tele-MANAS, describes itself as "Tele MANAS is a comprehensive mental health care service" and tells readers to "Dial the Toll-Free numbers below to get in touch with our Counsellor" on "14416 OR 1-800 891 4416". It is a general service, not a gambling one.