Five months on, PROGA stays unnotified; SC to listen to petitions difficult gaming regulation on Jan 21

Five months after the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act (PROGA), 2025, was handed, the regulation stays unnotified, leaving the web skill-gaming business in regulatory limbo. The Supreme Court is scheduled to listen to a batch of petitions difficult the constitutional validity of PROGA on January 21, 2026, earlier than a three-judge bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant.

The listening to can even embrace a public curiosity litigation filed by activist KA Paul, in search of motion towards on-line gaming and betting platforms, in addition to superstar endorsements of such web sites.

The Supreme Court had earlier pulled up evangelist and politician Dr Okay.A. Paul throughout a listening to on challenges to the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, firmly cautioning him towards in search of publicity and making an attempt to widen the proceedings past the authorized questions earlier than the courtroom, because the bench made it clear that superstar endorsements and allegations weren’t related to the constitutional validity of the regulation beneath problem.

Dr Paul’s petition alleges that on-line betting and gaming purposes are trapping tens of millions of Indians—significantly the youth—into what he described as an unlawful and addictive ecosystem, infringing the appropriate to life assured beneath Article 21 of the Constitution. The petition claims that the social penalties of such platforms have been extreme, alleging that in Telangana alone, 1,023 folks have died by suicide as a result of affect of betting apps.

The high courtroom had earlier indicated that constitutional challenges to PROGA would seemingly be heard by a three-judge bench, regardless of repeated pleas from the gaming business for an pressing itemizing. The case raises a basic query: whether or not Parliament can impose a nationwide ban on sure on-line gaming actions via PROGA. Legal counsel for the petitioners have argued that the issues are “intertwined,” noting {that a} discovering relating to one degree of presidency’s competence would straight affect the opposite.

The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 (PROG Act) recieved Presidential assent on 22 August,2025 with the twin goal of selling innovation in e-sports and on-line social gaming whereas curbing dangerous cash video games. The regulation bans all types of actual cash gaming each ability and probability.

Industry Flags De Facto Enforcement

The petitions filed by Head Digital Works and different spotlight the financial disruption attributable to PROGA even earlier than formal notification. HDW, a significant skill-gaming operator, argued that the delay in listening to has created a de facto enforcement of the regulation. According to courtroom filings, banks, fee gateways, and intermediaries withdrew companies instantly after PROGA was revealed on August 22, 2025, citing concern of penal penalties. UPI transactions have been blocked, settlements have been frozen, and WhatsApp Business communication channels have been suspended till compliance undertakings have been offered.

The firm said that it has had no income for almost three months, whereas incurring month-to-month working prices exceeding ₹10 crore. Its workforce has fallen from 606 workers to 178. Foreign investor Clairvest reportedly wrote off its complete ₹760-crore funding, citing an opposed regulatory local weather.

The filings point out that person attrition, halted promoting, and frozen fee infrastructure have made continued operations untenable. HDW warned that “every week of delay” compounds what it describes as an existential risk to the corporate and the broader on-line ability gaming business, which employed roughly two lakh folks and contributes considerably to direct and oblique tax revenues.

Government Defends PROGA

In response, the Union authorities has defended PROGA as a obligatory intervention to curb dangers posed by an unregulated on-line money-gaming ecosystem, together with threats to public order, monetary integrity, and susceptible customers. The affidavit highlights foreign-controlled entities, dummy administrators, opaque algorithms, and manipulative recreation designs among the many challenges confronted by regulators.

The authorities insisted that Parliament is absolutely competent to legislate on this sector, arguing that speedy business enlargement and not using a statutory framework has brought on social and financial hurt.

With the January 21 listening to, the Supreme Court should deal with these competing issues, weighing the regulatory aims of PROGA towards the financial and operational disruption confronted by the web gaming business. Legal observers be aware that the case might set a precedent for Parliament’s energy to control rising digital sectors nationwide.

First Published on Jan 20, 2026 8:54 AM