Cabinet Approves Online Gaming Bill, Making Betting Punishable and Regulating Gaming Platforms

The Union Cabinet authorized the Online Gaming Bill on August 19, 2025, aiming to control the booming on-line gaming sector in India by making on-line betting punishable and imposing penalties on promoters and endorsers.

The laws seeks to handle issues about habit, monetary fraud, and misleading promoting associated to betting apps. Since 2022, over 1,400 unlawful betting platforms have been blocked. The invoice additionally proposes strict accountability on celebrities and influencers endorsing such apps, emphasizing consumer safety and accountable gaming.

Comprehensive Legal Framework for Online Gaming

The just lately authorized Online Gaming Bill introduces a broad authorized framework to control on-line gaming platforms in India, with a powerful deal with curbing unlawful betting. The invoice classifies on-line betting as a punishable offence, empowering authorities to take strict motion towards operators and customers concerned in unauthorized playing actions.

Significantly, it extends accountability to endorsers equivalent to tv celebrities and social media influencers who promote betting apps, subjecting them to penalties to discourage deceptive ads. Government sources spotlight that this method goals to strike a stability between fostering the expansion of the gaming business and shielding client pursuits from exploitation and habit.

Government Measures Against Illegal Betting and Awareness Initiatives

The new legislation enhances ongoing governmental efforts which have already seen greater than 1,400 unlawful betting web sites and functions being blocked between 2022 and early 2025. In addition, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita prison provisions enacted final yr impose stiff penalties together with jail phrases of as much as seven years for unauthorized betting.

The authorities has additionally levied a 28% GST on on-line gaming income since October 2023 and imposed a 30% tax on winnings beginning within the fiscal yr 2024–25. Ministries equivalent to Education and Information & Broadcasting have issued advisories urging mother and father, lecturers, and broadcasters to advertise consciousness on the monetary dangers and addictive potential of betting video games. These multipronged methods display the federal government’s dedication to making a safer digital panorama for customers.

Economic and Social Implications of the Bill

With India’s on-line gaming sector rising quickly, the necessity for regulatory oversight has develop into important. The Online Gaming Bill not solely strengthens the authorized basis but in addition assures traders and customers of a safer and ruled ecosystem. The curbs on endorsements and ads search to curb the glamorization of playing, which frequently entices weak audiences, together with youth and people susceptible to habit.

Officials emphasize that these measures will shield customers from misleading practices whereas encouraging accountable participation. This authorized readability is predicted to reinforce business credibility and foster sustainable progress within the sector.

The Logical Indian’s Perspective

The Logical Indian welcomes the assertive transfer by the Union Cabinet to control on-line gaming with a deal with client security, transparency, and moral promotion. The invoice embodies the necessity to stability digital innovation with public welfare by eliminating gray areas that allowed unlawful betting to flourish unchecked.

Encouraging accountability for all gamers, together with endorsers, is essential to fight habit and monetary hurt. We name upon policymakers, business stakeholders, and communities to work collaboratively in the direction of constructing an internet gaming tradition that’s safe, moral, and pleasurable.