What the Online Gaming Act, 2025 bans

Act 32 of 2025, the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, came into force on 1 May 2026. MeitY notification S.O. 1994(E) of 22 Apr 2026 appointed that day. The 2026 Rules began the same day. The Act bans offering, advertising and facilitating online money games, of skill or of chance, and bars banks from those payments. A Supreme Court challenge is pending.

What is the Act, in one paragraph?

The Press Information Bureau note of 30 Apr 2026, posted at 4:42 PM, calls the statute the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, enacted by Parliament in August 2025. It says the Act prohibits online money games and, beside that prohibition, recognises e-sports and online social games. The same note says the Rules give the Act its procedures. This page does not repeat the note's estimates of how many people lost money. Those figures are the government's estimate in that note, and they are not needed to read the ban.

When did it become law, and when did it start?

The Act's own section 1(3), in the gazette copy read for the legal guide, says the Act begins on a date the Official Gazette names. That date is no longer missing. S.O. 1994(E), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, New Delhi, 22 Apr 2026, appoints 1 May 2026 as the day the provisions come into force. The notification cites sub-section (3) of section 1 and Act 32 of 2025. G.S.R. 303(E), the same ministry and the same day, is the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Rules, 2026. Rule 1(2) says the Rules come into force on 1 May 2026.

What counts as an online money game?

The PIB note of 30 Apr 2026 says an online money game involves financial stakes and may be based on chance, skill, or both. The Act, it says, imposes a complete ban on all of those forms. It also prohibits their advertising, promotion and facilitation. Banks and payment systems are barred from processing transactions linked to such games. E-sports and online social games are the categories the note treats as outside that ban. A chart of a past matka line, such as the Kalyan jodi chart, is a record of a declaration. It is not a stake, and this site does not take one.

What are the penalties for offering or advertising?

The same PIB note states the deterrent penalties. Offering or facilitating online money games may attract imprisonment of up to three years, or a fine of up to one crore rupees, or both. A repeat offence carries a minimum of three years, extendable to five, and a fine between one crore and two crore rupees. Advertising such games may invite up to two years, or a fine of up to fifty lakh rupees, or both. The note says repeat advertising attracts higher penalties. It does not set the repeat-advertising figure in that sentence, so this page does not invent one. It also says cyber cell officers at state and Union Territory level, including at the police station, may investigate.

What do the 2026 Rules add?

The PIB note lists what the Rules are for. They set a way to decide whether a game is a prohibited online money game or a permissible social game or e-sport. They establish the Online Gaming Authority of India as an attached office of MeitY, with its head office in the National Capital Territory of Delhi, chaired by the Additional Secretary, MeitY. Joint Secretary level officers from Home Affairs, Finance, Information and Broadcasting, Youth Affairs and Sports, and Law and Justice sit on it. A determination is to be completed, as far as practicable, within 90 days. Registration, when the Central Government notifies that it is required, can produce a certificate valid for up to ten years. Online money games are not eligible for that registration.

On grievances, the note says every provider must keep a redressal system. A user who is not satisfied may approach the Authority within 30 days. The Authority endeavours to dispose of that appeal within a further 30 days. A second appeal lies to the Appellate Authority, who rule 2 of G.S.R. 303(E) defines as the Secretary to the Government of India in MeitY. None of those steps is a way to place a stake. They are the procedure the Rules describe for users of games the Act allows.

Does this rewrite offline satta or the 1867 Act?

The documents opened for this page are about online games. They do not say the 2025 Act repeals the Public Gambling Act, 1867, or any state gambling Act. The legal guide already records that section 18 of the 2025 Act, in the gazette copy read earlier, says the Act is in addition to other law and overrides it where they clash. That sentence is about the clash, not a licence to skip the state text. A street draw and an app are not the same instrument. For the 1867 Act's own sections, including section 13 on play in a public street, use the legal guide.

What about apps that still advertise play?

The PIB note says advertising, promotion and facilitation of online money games are prohibited, and that banks are barred from the related payments. A page that still invites a stake is describing conduct the note places inside the ban. This page does not name an app as convicted. The Mahadev case guide is a November 2026 news account of one investigation, and it keeps allegations separate from a verdict. A newspaper report of an arrest is the paper's account, and rented accounts belong on the mule-account guide when the report is about rented accounts. Reporting a payment fraud is the complaint guide. Spotting a fake result page is a different checklist, the fake-site guide.

Is the law being challenged?

Yes. The challenge is pending in the Supreme Court. The order of 5 Aug 2026, read for the case-status guide, posts the batch for final hearing and does not stay the Act. A pending case is not a pause button. Until a court stays the Act or strikes part of it down, the commencement notification still says 1 May 2026.

1. Open MeitY notification S.O. 1994(E) and read the appointed date, 1 May 2026.
2. Open G.S.R. 303(E) and read rule 1, which starts the Rules on the same day.
3. Read the PIB note of 30 Apr 2026 for the penalty summary and the Authority.
4. For the court, open the Supreme Court order of 5 Aug 2026 rather than a reposted date.