TN Notifies New Rules Banning Real Money Gaming For Minors

The Tamil Nadu government has notified the new online gaming rules, which effectively bar all minors (under the age of 18) from playing online real-money games.

In an official gazette notification dated February 12, the government said that the new rules will come into effect immediately, leaving online real money gaming platforms scrambling to comply with new norms.

This comes just days after local authorities floated the Tamil Nadu Online Gaming Authority (Real Money Games) Regulations, 2025, which restricted real money online games between midnight and 5 AM. No logins will be permitted during these hours.

The new mandates also make it compulsory for online real money gaming platforms to ensure know your customer (KYC) verification for account creation. In addition, the new provisions also note that initial login into the account of the user will have to be authenticated using Aadhaar-based verification, including a one-time password sent to the linked phone number.

Online game providers shall display pop-up caution messages when a player plays continuously for more than one hour. Such caution pop-up messages should appear at an interval of every 30 minutes indicating how long they have been playing,” read the official notification.

In addition, the gaming platforms will also have to “prominently” display the message “Online gaming is adductive in nature” on their login pages. The new mandates also put the onus on RMG platforms to provide an option for the users to set daily, weekly, and monthly monetary limits.

Meanwhile, an industry insider told Storyboard18 that online gaming platforms may choose to “halt their operations” in the state until their tech stack is updated to comply with local norms. This follows reports that RMG industry stakeholders were mulling legal action against the Tamil Nadu government over prohibiting gaming between midnight and 5 AM.

This piles on the troubles faced by the homegrown online gaming industry, which has been seething under the impact of 28% goods and services tax (GST), imposed in 2023, on the total value of bets for online games, irrespective of whether they are games of skill or chance.