Modi govt's online gaming ban may drive addicts underground

New Delhi: India's recent ban of online money-based games could drive addicts to unregulated apps and offshore platforms that pose new financial and social risks, fantasy-sports gaming experts warn.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government banned real-money online games late last month, citing financial losses and addiction, leading to a shutdown of many apps offering paid fantasy cricket, rummy and poker games.

"Many will move to offshore platforms because of the addictive nature - they will find alternate means to get that dopamine hit," Viren Hemrajani, a Mumbai-based fantasy cricket analyst, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"It (also) leads to fraud and scams because everything is now unregulated. Even if users win, there is no guarantee they get their money back," he said, citing various apps posing as shopping platforms illegally offering coins and tokens to play.

The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act of 2025 has shocked an industry that is backed by venture capital firms such as New York's Tiger Global and Bengaluru-based Peak XV Partners and was expected to be worth $3.6 billion by 2029.

Platforms MPL and rival Dream11 became popular in recent years by offering financial prizes to users competing in fantasy cricket games, in which players form virtual "teams" of real-life players and earn points based on their on-field performances.

Both apps have discontinued their money games after the ban.

The industry says the games rely on skill and therefore are not gambling, which was already highly restricted in India.

Hardship

Critics of fantasy sports and other real-money gaming apps argue that the pastime is essentially gambling, because players stake money on contests whose outcomes they cannot control.

Modi's government has repeatedly expressed its unhappiness over money-based games, saying they cause addiction and that it had a duty to act against "social evils".

"Families have lost their savings. Young people have fallen into addiction. In some heartbreaking cases, financial distress linked to these games has even led to suicides," said a government press statement on the new law.

The World Health Organization says gaming disorder is marked by a loss of control, prioritising play over regular daily activities and continuing despite harmful consequences.

India has about 444 million gamers, including 138 million who play paid games, according to a 2024 report by Eximius Ventures, a Gurugram-based venture capital firm.

Some users predict that the ban will boost the gambling black market that has long operated in the shadows.

"More and more people will use VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) or offline bookies to access illegal and offshore games," said Varun Sharma, who spent eight years playing fantasy games, mainly basketball, winning up to 1.2 million rupees ($13,713) in a single game.

Sharma, 24, said he saw a sudden uptick of betting offers and schemes on messaging apps like Telegram after the bill was passed. He described himself as "heartbroken and unable to move on" since the ban took effect.

Alternatives

The new law prohibits banks and payment companies from facilitating financial transactions for real-money gaming.

Determined players could find workarounds, such as depositing money into crypto wallets or using US payments firm PayPal, which are beyond India's purview.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology did not respond to requests for comment on the ban, its potential risks and what the next moves, if any, will be.

The gaming industry has warned that companies will have to either downsize or shut down completely.

MPL has said it will sack about 60% of its local workforce.

Gaming company A23, which offers rummy and poker games, is one of several that has challenged the ban in court. India's top court on Monday said it would hear the combined petitions, but it was not immediately clear when.

Some proponents of online gaming said regulations, such as setting limits on game time, money a user spends or on the ratio between entry fees and prize money could have curbed the risks of addiction and financial hardship.

Nandan Kamath, a lawyer in Bengaluru with expertise in sports and gaming law, said more discourse on users' rights and how they choose to spend their money and time in digital domains was needed.

"A clear argument can be made that entirely limiting the expression of skill-gaming through a ban is an unreasonable restraint on both expression and profession," he said.

Kamath urged the government to promote healthy alternatives that might satisfy gamers' urges and needs, de-addiction support through digital health programmes and better enforcement of the unregulated market to prevent user harm.

He said gaming companies could evolve with growing tech, artificial intelligence and sizeable user databases.

"Some of these companies might have another inning, using a new playbook."

($1 = 87.5060 Indian rupees)