The Indian gambling market closed out the year with a revenue forecast above $61 billion. Growth projections are modest, with the average annual growth in 2025–2030 expected at 0.71%, but the sheer scale already makes the industry a significant factor for the financial system and the digital economy.
A turning point came in August 2025, when the country introduced the first nationwide law aimed at digital games with cash stakes. The new rules quickly changed the day-to-day operations of platforms, advertising channels, and payment infrastructure, prompting some services to pause operations.
What this covers—and where the regulatory line is drawn
The focus of federal intervention concerns online betting and products involving money, including projects that position themselves as games of skill. Within this framework, the debate is not only about entertainment, but also about monitoring of fund flows, user identification, and minors’ access.
Land-based casinos and other offline formats remain under state jurisdiction. This is a fundamentally different regime, where the rules depend on local political decisions and enforcement practice, so the nationwide law did not отменил the regional landscape, but was layered on top of it.
When states made the decisions and the market was a patchwork
Before the center’s intervention, gambling was largely regulated at the state level. In some regions, lotteries and land-based casinos were permitted; in others, there was an outright ban; and in still others, hybrid models were applied with restrictions by game type and licensing.
Such fragmentation created uneven conditions for businesses and users. Where authorities actively curbed operators’ activities, the market moved underground faster, while in more permissive jurisdictions a concentration of offerings emerged, widening the gap between formal rules and actual player behavior.
Public Gaming Act 1867 and the long shadow of a pre-internet law
For a long time, the foundational document remained the Public Gaming Act 1867, created for offline games and not describing online platforms. Because of this, digital products existed for years in a legal gray area, where interpretations depended on local regulators and courts.
The practical outcome was paradoxical. In most cases, it was difficult for local online operators to operate legally, while offshore services were not always explicitly prohibited, because the ban in the law was not formulated for the realities of the internet era.
Why the issue became national
The growth in the number of players and bets made the problem not only a moral or social issue, but also a financial one. Authorities pointed to risks arising around unregulated offshore platforms, where it is harder to verify age, source of funds, and compliance with advertising restrictions.
Among the key concerns voiced in discussions, the following were mentioned most often:
- minors’ access to betting and real-money games
- addiction risk and the lack of unified responsible-gaming standards
- large sums moving through opaque channels and weak operator accountability
Against this backdrop, the central government moved to an attempt to create a unified federal framework for real-money online games.
What the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act 2025 established
Adopted in August 2025, the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act became the first nationwide attempt to set rules for digital games with cash stakes. Products that emphasize an element of skill also fell under the law’s scope, because the focus was on the very fact of monetary wagering.
The law sets out basic provisions
- real-money online games are prohibited without prior approval from the authorized regulator
- offering and promoting unlicensed gambling services is prohibited
- banks and payment providers are required to block transactions in favor of prohibited platforms
- esports and games without monetary stakes do not fall under the prohibition regime
At the same time, enforcement is aimed primarily at operators, advertisers, and payment intermediaries rather than players, bringing the model closer to the approaches used in some major regulated markets.
Two levels of oversight and the role of payments as a lever
Oversight in the online segment is divided between two levels. The Online Gaming Authority of India classifies a product as a real-money online game, issues compliance directives, that is, on meeting mandatory requirements, and imposes penalties.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) sets the rules, oversees implementation, and coordinates work with banks and payment gateways. Offline casinos still remain within the states’ perimeter, so the market effectively has two regulatory tracks coexisting, digital and territorial.
Operators’ response and the impact on users
For operators, the consequences were swift. Platforms offering fantasy sports, poker, rummy, and betting either suspended operations or shifted products to a free-to-play format with no monetary stakes. Dream11, MPL, and a number of other major services publicly paused services after the law took effect.
For audiences, this meant fewer legal options and greater uncertainty around fund transfers. In practice, payments oversight became the main tool for enforcing the rules, because blocking can be scaled faster than investigations into individual sites.
Blocks, fines, and ways to circumvent them
According to industry reports, the state relied on financial restrictions. Banks and payment providers block transactions in favor of prohibited services, and violations may entail fines of up to ₹1 crore and potential criminal liability, which increased intermediaries’ caution.
Against this backdrop, the market began looking for circumvention routes that simultaneously increase risks for consumers:
- use of mule accounts with payments disguised as transfers to individuals within India
- use of cryptocurrencies to deposit and withdraw funds outside the banking system
- connecting via VPN to conceal geolocation
Offshore platforms may still remain without clear accountability and mechanisms to protect players, so the gray market segment becomes more visible even amid a formal tightening of the rules.
Players choose offshore sites for several reasons. This may be a desire to receive bonuses, a desire to win more, or a wider selection of gambling games. Platforms with international licenses offer players not only traditional entertainment, but also exclusive offerings, including those tailored to the local market. Thus, for Indian players, the Andar Bahar live casino game is a nod to local color. Survey data show that players from India are increasingly choosing game formats traditional for the country. And online casinos take this into account
The fact that playing on offshore sites deprives players of legal protection does little to deter most people. As a result, the gray segment of the market in India is growing rapidly.