[Update] SC To Hear All Pleas Challenging Real Money Gaming Ban

Update | September 8, 17:30 IST

The Supreme Court has accepted the Centre’s plea to transfer all cases challenging the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 to the apex court. 

The Centre requested for these transfers to avoid multiple litigations and maintain consistency. 

A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and KV Viswanathan allowed the Union government’s transfer petition, Bar & Bench reported. 

With this, the pleas filed in the High Courts of Delhi, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, challenging the Act, will now be heard by the SC.

Original | September 4, 15:01 IST

The central government has filed a petition in the Supreme Court to transfer all pleas challenging the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 from various High Courts to the apex court. 

The Centre’s plea was presented before a bench comprising Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran today. The bench agreed to hear the plea for consideration next week, PTI reported.

“(The) Union has filed a transfer plea… the Online Gaming Regulation Act has been challenged before three high courts. If it can be listed on Monday since it’s listed for interim orders before the Karnataka High Court… ” the government’s counsel was quoted as saying. 

In its petition, the Centre urged the SC to hear the cases together for consistency and avoid multiple litigations.

Notably, the Act has been challenged in the High Courts of Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Delhi.

Head Digital Works, which operates gaming platform A23, was one of the first prominent players in the real money gaming (RMG) space to file a petition against the Act in the Karnataka HC. The court sought the Centre’s response on the petition last week. 

Besides, gaming platform Bagheera Carrom has filed a petition against the Act in the Delhi HC and fantasy gaming app Boom 11 has moved the Madhya Pradesh HC against the RMG ban in India. 

The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025 became a law after it got President Droupadi Murmu’s assent on August 22. The Centre plans to soon notify the rules for the gaming law. 

The Act not only bans RMG but also direct or indirect promotion of such games within the territory of the country. Any business offering real money games will be liable for punishment. The penalty will be in the range of INR 50 Lakh to INR 2 Cr and an imprisonment of two to three years. 

Following the passage of the Bill in the Parliament, RMG startups such as Dream11, Games 24×7, Gameskraft, among others, closed down their RMG offerings. 

This has created havoc in the country’s gaming industry, with startups pivoting to new business models and laying off employees in droves.

While Dream Sports has shifted its focus to scale its sports streaming platform FanCode and seek opportunities in the AI space, others including Zupee and Gameskraft have moved to free-to-play offerings.

WinZO has forayed into the microdrama space with the launch of its ZO TV and will offer its RMG games in the international markets such as the US. 

The likes of MPL, PokerBaazi and Games 24×7 have sacked employees to deal with the abrupt ban on RMG offering, which was the main revenue source for them.