When the Rajya Sabha cleared the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025 this week, a silence swept across India’s bustling real money gaming (RMG) sector. For years, this multi-billion-dollar industry had thrived on the country’s passion for fantasy sports, poker, rummy, and prediction markets. Overnight, its foundations have been shaken.
The Bill, which now bans real money gaming outright, also bars advertisements and blocks banks from processing transactions linked to these platforms. What the government has pitched as a move to safeguard society from the “harmful effects” of RMG has instead left founders, investors, and millions of players staring at an uncertain future.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while hailing the Bill’s passage, said India must now build itself into a hub for esports, social gaming, and innovation-driven entertainment rather than allow “money games” to flourish unchecked. But for the startups that defined India’s gaming boom, the law has been nothing short of a death blow.
Shockwaves Through India’s Gaming Giants
The first to blink was MPL (Mobile Premier League), one of India’s most celebrated unicorns, which swiftly suspended all of its real money contests.
“Our foremost priority is our users,” the company said, promising smooth withdrawals while admitting that money games would no longer be available on its platform. MPL’s decision set the tone for what soon became a domino effect across the industry.
Soon after, fantasy sports behemoth Dream11, which once boasted more than 280 million users, followed suit. In a message to its players, the company confirmed it had shut down cash contests, though balances remained safe. Dream11’s retreat is symbolic—the platform was practically synonymous with fantasy gaming in India, backed by global investors like Tiger Global and valued at $8 billion at its peak.
Another giant, Games24x7, quietly pulled the plug on its flagship RummyCircle app, ending all cash games. Its fantasy sports platform, My11Circle, also turned into a free-to-play model.
“Players are at the heart of everything we do,” the company said, while reassuring that wallets would remain fully withdrawable.
Veterans Exit, Startups Pivot
For Head Digital Works, one of India’s oldest gaming operators, the move marked the end of an era. Known for its poker and rummy platforms like A23, the company suspended all real money offerings, including Adda52, which it had acquired earlier this year for nearly INR 500 crore.
Similarly, Nazara-backed PokerBaazi shut operations, citing respect for the government’s mandate. The company, in which Nazara holds a significant stake, said it would “re-evaluate” its strategy in the wake of the new law.
Even new entrants have been forced to pull back. Cricbuzz11, the fantasy sports extension of Times Internet’s cricket portal, had barely launched in February 2025 before it announced a complete suspension of contests involving money.
Voices of Disappointment
The sense of disappointment isn’t confined to legacy players. WinZO, one of the fastest-growing gaming startups, called the moment “a defining juncture for the industry” while announcing the rollback of all its RMG offerings. Co-founder Paavan Nanda noted that the company would continue supporting developers and look beyond restrictive app store models, but acknowledged the scale of disruption caused.
Meanwhile, Kavin Bharti Mittal, founder of Hike (which rebranded itself into the gaming platform Rush), minced no words. In a LinkedIn post, he criticized the government for rushing through a blanket ban “without industry consultation,” and revealed that Hike would now shift its gaming operations to the US.
Zupee, a popular soonicorn, said it would discontinue all paid offerings but would keep its casual titles like Ludo Supreme and Snakes & Ladders live in free-to-play mode. Its apps, however, briefly went offline on Google Play, signaling just how abruptly startups were forced to recalibrate.
Others like Gameskraft, which ran platforms such as RummyCulture and LudoCulture, and prediction-market player Probo, also bowed out, halting all money-linked services while assuring users of seamless withdrawals.
With nearly every major RMG operator shutting down within days of the Bill’s passage, India’s online gaming landscape has been redrawn almost overnight. What was once a thriving sector, employing around 2 lakh people and attracting billions in venture capital, now faces a vacuum.
Startups are scrambling to pivot towards esports, casual gaming, and social play, while some are weighing legal options to challenge the Bill. Investors, meanwhile, are taking stock of what this means for their bets on India’s digital consumption story.
For now, the government insists that the ban is a safeguard, not a roadblock—claiming that India’s gaming future lies in skill-based esports and creative game development rather than betting or fantasy sports. But for thousands of entrepreneurs, developers, and users who built and believed in the RMG ecosystem, the Online Gaming Bill 2025 is nothing less than a hard reset.
