Online Gaming Bill fallout: Gameskraft axes 120 jobs, says laws ‘left us with no choice’

Bengaluru-based on-line gaming agency Gameskraft introduced on Thursday that it’s shedding 120 workers because it grapples with the fallout from the lately handed Online Gaming Bill, 2025.

“The current regulatory landscape has made us completely stop our business and has left us with no choice but to initiate a company-wide restructuring,” Gameskraft stated in an announcement.

What is Online Gaming Bill?

The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill—which President Murmu gave assent to in August—prohibits all on-line money-gaming platforms, with facilitators dealing with as much as three years in jail and fines of as much as ₹1 crore. Even selling these platforms by means of commercials can result in two years’ imprisonment and penalties of as much as ₹50 lakh.

Gameskraft layoffs

Gameskraft stated it’s going to honour all commitments to affected workers as per the agreements—together with depart encashment based mostly on complete wage and never simply primary wage.

The Bengaluru-based agency additionally stated that group medical insurance for its workers will keep lively till March or when laidoff workers be a part of a brand new job, whichever is earlier.

Employees can convert their group medical insurance to a person plan, and people with dad and mom included within the coverage can preserve it uninterrupted, stated Gameskraft in its assertion.

Layoffs because of gaming invoice

Several firms that have been engaged within the real-money gaming have began shedding a majority of their employees, reported PTI.

Following the passing of the Online Gaming Bill, business insiders had already warned that the sweeping ban might cripple the sector, resulting in greater than 20,000 workers shedding their job and forcing greater than 300 firms to close their operations, Mint reported earlier.

According to enterprise capital agency Lumikai, India’s gaming market, which employs greater than 130,000 expert workers, is valued at $3.8 billion and will improve to $9.2 billion by 2029.