President urged to return Online Gaming Bill; Rajya Sabha passes controversial laws

The Rajya Sabha on Thursday handed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, marking a decisive step by the Union authorities to manage India’s fast-growing gaming ecosystem. The Bill, cleared by the Lok Sabha a day earlier, proposes to create a authorized framework for esports and academic gaming whereas imposing a blanket ban on all on-line cash video games, regardless of whether or not they’re video games of ability or probability.

Even earlier than the Bill reached Rashtrapati Bhavan for assent, it has drawn authorized resistance. Jay Sayta, a distinguished Mumbai-based lawyer specializing in gaming and know-how legal guidelines, has written to President Droupadi Murmu, urging her to withhold assent and return the Bill to Parliament for reconsideration beneath Article 111 of the Constitution of India.

In his detailed letter, Sayta raises three principal constitutional and authorized objections to the laws:

1. Question of Legislative Competence
Sayta argues that the Bill encroaches upon issues reserved for state legislatures. He cites Entry 34 of the State List (List II of the Seventh Schedule), which locations “betting and gambling” completely beneath the jurisdiction of states. By making an attempt to deliver all types of on-line gaming—skill-based and chance-based—beneath a central legislation, the Union authorities, he contends, has violated the federal distribution of powers.

“The attempt to enact a central law under the guise of regulating ‘online’ gaming infringes upon the federal structure and violates the distribution of powers envisaged under the Constitution,” Sayta notes, emphasizing that the Supreme Court has repeatedly cautioned in opposition to such encroachments.

2. Violation of Fundamental Rights
The second pillar of Sayta’s argument is that the Bill arbitrarily curtails constitutionally protected rights. The draft legislation defines an ‘online money game’ as any sport performed for stakes, no matter whether or not it’s skill-based or chance-based. This definition, coupled with prison penalties, successfully bans skill-based video games similar to rummy, fantasy sports activities, and even on-line chess competitions.

Sayta highlights that Indian courts, together with the Supreme Court, have persistently acknowledged skill-based video games as distinct from playing and guarded beneath Article 19(1)(g), which ensures the proper to observe any career or enterprise. “A blanket ban on such games, irrespective of their skill component, is arbitrary and disproportionate, failing the tests laid down under Article 19(6),” his letter states.

He additional warns that the measure may cripple an trade that employs hundreds of execs, starting from sport builders and authorized specialists to advertising and marketing executives, whereas additionally limiting the liberty of customers.

3. Ignoring Judicial Precedents
Sayta underscores that the Bill sidesteps key judicial pronouncements. High Courts in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala have struck down related state-level prohibitions on on-line skill-based video games, declaring them unconstitutional. The Supreme Court, too, has repeatedly upheld skill-based gaming as a reliable type of enterprise exercise.

“The Bill ignores these judicial findings and reintroduces prohibitive measures without appropriate justification or a nuanced legal framework,” Sayta wrote.

A Call for Presidential Intervention
Invoking the President’s powers beneath Article 111, Sayta urged President Murmu to ship the Bill again to Parliament for reconsideration, warning that its present type undermines federalism, constitutional propriety, and the basic rights of residents.

Industry observers say that is the primary formal authorized problem to the Bill since its passage in Parliament. The improvement has reignited debate on whether or not India’s gaming legal guidelines must be centralized or left to states, and whether or not an outright prohibition on cash video games can stand up to judicial scrutiny.

The authorities, on its half, has defended the transfer as crucial to guard residents—significantly the youth—from monetary exploitation, habit, and unlawful betting. However, trade stakeholders argue that the Bill conflates reliable skill-based platforms with playing, creating regulatory uncertainty and threatening the expansion of India’s $3 billion on-line gaming trade.

As the Bill awaits presidential assent, specialists predict a protracted authorized battle forward, with challenges prone to attain the Supreme Court if the laws turns into legislation.

On Wednesday, The Esports Players Welfare Association (EPWA) has formally written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing considerations over the proposed Online Gaming Bill, cautioning that the laws may threaten the livelihoods of India’s rising neighborhood {of professional} players.