Online Gaming Act 2025 and Rules 2026

Short answer

The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 bans online money games. PIB says the ban covers games of chance, games of skill, and any mix of the two. It also bans ads for them and help to run them.

The Online Gaming Rules, 2026 were published in the Gazette on 22 April 2026 (G.S.R. 303(E)). They came into force on 1 May 2026 (rule 1(2)). They set up the Online Gaming Authority of India.

We have not opened the Act itself. The official Act pages did not load for us. Facts about the Act on this page come from PIB's note, not the Act's own text.

What it means for you

• Law (as PIB describes the Act): do not offer, help run or advertise an online money game. PIB says banks and payment firms may not process payments for one.
• Law (rule 20(1)): if you offer a social game or an e-sport, keep a working way for users to complain.
• Law (rule 15): if your game is checked or registered, show those details where users play. Do not claim a status you do not have.
• Law (rule 12(1)): register a game only if it is to be an e-sport, or if the government names its category in a notice.
• Good practice: write down how your game makes money and whether users pay to play or win. These are the factors the Authority looks at (rule 9).

How it works

Who decides. The Authority has a Chairperson and five members. The Chairperson is an Additional Secretary at MeitY, or an officer of Joint Secretary rank or above named by the MeitY Secretary. The members are Joint Secretaries from Home Affairs, Financial Services, Information and Broadcasting, Youth Affairs and Sports, and Legal Affairs (rule 3(1)). It works from Delhi as a digital office of MeitY (rule 3(5) and (6)).

What it decides. It decides if a game is an online money game. It keeps and publishes a list of the ones it finds (rule 6(1)(a)). It looks at fees, stakes, the hope of winning money, the revenue model, and whether game items can be cashed out (rule 9). It aims to decide within 90 days (rule 10(3)).

E-sports. An online money game can never be an e-sport (rule 12(3)). An e-sport is registered within 90 days of a full application, if it is recognised under the National Sports Governance Act, 2025 (rule 13(3)). A certificate lasts up to ten years (rule 14(2)).

How users complain. First, complain to the game company. If you are not happy, or get no answer, go to the Authority within 30 days (rule 20(2)). The Authority aims to decide within 30 days (rule 20(3)). After that you can appeal to the Secretary, MeitY within 30 days (rules 7(2) and 20(5)). That appeal should be decided within 30 days if possible (rule 7(6)).

Penalties. PIB says offering a money game can mean up to three years in jail, a fine of up to Rs 1 crore, or both. Ads can mean up to two years, a fine of up to Rs 50 lakh, or both. Repeat offences carry more. Under the Rules, the Authority decides a penalty complaint within 90 days (rule 21(6)). It can fine, suspend or cancel a certificate, or ban a firm from offering games for a time (rule 21(7)). Penalties go to the Consolidated Fund of India (rule 22).

Link to DPDP. The DPDP Rules, 2025 name one gaming class in the Third Schedule: an "online gaming intermediary having not less than fifty lakh registered users in India". Such a firm must erase most personal data three years after the user last made contact (Rule 8(1)). See Retention and erasure. The Gaming Rules themselves do not mention the DPDP Act or the IT Rules.

Link to the IT Act. PIB says illegal platforms may be blocked under the IT Act, 2000.

What's still open

• The Act's own text and its definition of an online money game. We have not opened it yet.
• Which social games, if any, the government will make register. No notice is cited yet.
• The Authority's directions on data storage, payments and contact persons (rules 16 to 19).