The Supreme Court of India has consolidated all petitions challenging the country’s recent ban on real-money online gaming under its direct jurisdiction. This comes in the wake of sweeping changes that shook the Indian gaming sector to its core.
India Banned Real-Money Games
In August, Indian lawmakers introduced and subsequently passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, which snuffed out the flourishing real-money online gaming market practically overnight.
While India has always had strict prohibitions on gambling, lawmakers had so far been willing to exempt skill-based games from existing bans. This sparked the rise of a unique gaming ecosystem where all legal real-money games incorporate an element of skill.
In the past few years, India’s real-money gaming industry swelled significantly and was expected to be worth up to $3.6 billion by 2029. However, these favorable projections have now been jeopardized by the latest ban.
Needless to say, a variety of bodies have addressed the matter, challenging the ban.
Supreme Court of India Takes All Challenges Under Its Jurisdiction
As mentioned, the Supreme Court of India has consolidated all challenges under its direct jurisdiction, arguing that this move will save precious time due to the similar nature of many of the petitions.
Such petitions have been filed at the high courts of Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Delhi, by a variety of proponents of the gaming industry. With the Supreme Court stepping in, the aforementioned courts will no longer be involved in determining whether the ban was constitutional or not.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta noted that similar legal challenges had already been discussed back when India introduced the controversial 28% GST levy on online gaming.
Lawmakers Have Long Sought to Restrict the Industry
In any case, lawmakers in India have firmly criticized the real-money online gaming industry for exposing players to significant risks of harm and addiction, regardless of whether its products constitute gambling or not.
IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has additionally pointed out alleged links between some of India’s most popular gaming platforms (such as Dream11, RummyCulture, My11Circle and MPL) and money laundering.
Industry proponents, however, have slammed the decision to end a lucrative industry that creates thousands of jobs, contributes to the economy, and supports the sports sector.