Behind the swift push to the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill is the Sangh Parivar’s ideological pressure and the Modi government’s view that profits cannot come at the cost of social order
(Illustration by Nilanjan Das / AI)
On August 19, when the Union cabinet cleared the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, the sense of urgency was unmistakable. Within 24 hours, the draft was tabled in Parliament, underscoring how swiftly the Narendra Modi government wanted to push through one of the most ambitious regulatory overhauls in India’s digital economy.
Behind the language of consumer protection and youth welfare lies a story of political calculation, social pressure and economic disruption that could reverberate across industries far removed from gaming.
Many consider this to be step down from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day announcement last year, wherein he aspired for India to become the leader in the global gaming market. Modi had then said that India must leverage its rich ancient legacy and literature to come up with Made in India gaming products. He added that Indian professionals must lead the global gaming market, not just in playing but also in producing games.
Now, the red line has been drawn to keep real-money games out of the ambit, argue those in the government. For months, the government had been under pressure to respond to a surge of distress stories linked to real-money gaming. Parents complained of teenagers running up debts on borrowed digital wallets; young professionals saw their salaries wiped out in a few nights of high-stakes play; and across small towns, reports of suicides tied to online gambling losses began to appear with disturbing regularity.
The public perception that gaming platforms were becoming a social menace—akin to alcohol or narcotics in their addictive pull—was gaining ground. State governments, particularly in the South, had tried to legislate bans, only to have them struck down by courts. The Centre’s reluctance to intervene had begun to look like neglect.
That vacuum was filled by the Sangh Parivar’s affiliates, who brought ideological pressure to bear on the government. The Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), in particular, made online gaming a moral economy issue, portraying it as a threat to household savings and traditional values.
The argument resonated within the BJP ecosystem: speculative play was not creating productive capital but draining families, and worse, it was ensnaring India’s youth. In closed-door consultations, Sangh functionaries invoked parallels with colonial-era opium and liquor trades, which they said had weakened communities from within. By the time the Cabinet note circulated, the push from the ideological right had become impossible to ignore.
The bill itself is sweeping. It bans real-money games outright and criminalises their endorsement by celebrities, athletes and social media influencers. It arms regulators with extraordinary powers, including warrantless search and seizure, allowing officials to enter premises, seize servers and freeze accounts without prior judicial oversight. Penalties run into crores, with provisions for jail time for repeat offenders. For a sector that had operated in regulatory grey zones for years, the shift is nothing short of seismic.
The impact on India’s celebrity economy is immediate. Over the past three years, endorsements for gaming platforms had become a major source of income for cricketers, Bollywood stars and digital influencers. That revenue stream vanishes overnight, leaving talent agencies scrambling. For venture-backed firms, many with global capital riding on India as one of the largest growth markets, the bill is potentially fatal.
Platforms built around fantasy sports, poker, rummy and other real-money formats face outright extinction. Investors had poured billions into the sector, confident that India’s courts would protect skill-based gaming from outright bans. That bet has now backfired.
Yet in one of those paradoxes that define India’s markets, several listed tech and gaming-related stocks rallied after the Cabinet decision. Investors seemed to calculate that the elimination of grey-zone competition would consolidate opportunity in segments the government deems permissible—casual, skill-based or educational gaming. Some even speculated that global studios, wary of the unpredictability, would step back, leaving domestic firms to dominate what remains of the field. In that sense, capital was already reorienting to profit from the regulation even as hundreds of start-ups faced an existential threat.
For the Modi government, the calculus is clear: the political dividend outweighs the economic cost. Positioning itself as a guardian of family welfare against predatory industries has appeal across caste, class and geography. In semi-urban and rural constituencies, stories of young men pawning jewellery or defaulting on loans after online gaming binges have spread widely.
In the southern states, where courts had overturned state-level bans, the Centre’s decisive intervention allows the BJP to claim ownership of a cause that regional parties had fumbled. By centralising regulation, the government not only resolves a messy federal dispute but also asserts Delhi’s primacy over a digital sector once seen as beyond traditional governance.
The symbolism goes further. Around the world, governments are moving against online gaming excesses. China has imposed strict limits on youth play, Europe is tightening gambling-related regulations, and the US has seen state-level crackdowns. India’s permissive stance had begun to look anomalous.
By tabling the bill, the government aligned itself with this global wave, signalling that its digital economy is not a laissez-faire frontier but one subject to moral and political oversight. As one economist who has tracked the sector for years put it, “This is a blunt instrument, but perhaps a necessary one. When markets fail to self-regulate and the social costs pile up, the state asserts itself.”
Still, the long-term consequences remain uncertain. India’s digital economy has thrived on global investor confidence, and sudden, sweeping prohibitions risk undermining that perception of predictability. Venture capital funds have already begun reassessing their appetite for Indian start-ups, worried that other high-growth sectors could face similar crackdowns. Even firms in permissible categories will find themselves grappling with compliance costs and the chilling effect of regulators armed with warrantless powers. For entrepreneurs, the bill is a reminder that in India’s political economy, social stability can trump innovation.
But for the ruling BJP, the political upside is too attractive to ignore. The legislation dovetails neatly with the party’s broader narrative of moral guardianship: protecting the young, safeguarding families and curbing what it portrays as corrosive modern temptations. In campaign rallies, expect to hear references to the bill as proof that the Modi government will not allow “digital addiction” to destroy households. The fact that it was tabled in Parliament so swiftly after Cabinet approval underscores its role as a political project, not just a regulatory measure.
In the clash between capital and culture, the government has chosen culture. In the tug of war between states and courts, it has reasserted central authority. In the balance between innovation and morality, it has sided firmly with morality. Whether the online gaming bill becomes a model for future digital regulation or a cautionary tale of overreach will depend on its implementation. For now, what it represents is unmistakable: the assertion of the state’s right to police not just the economy but the moral fabric of society.
The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill is, therefore, more than a piece of legislation. It is a statement of intent from a government that thrives on decisive gestures. The message to investors is blunt: profits cannot come at the cost of social order. The message to voters is sharper still: the state will intervene, aggressively if necessary, to protect families from what it sees as corrosive forces. In a season of high political stakes, the bill has become both policy and politics, an emblem of how the Modi government views the trade-offs between growth, morality and control.
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Published By:
Shyam Balasubramanian
Published On:
Aug 20, 2025
