What’s Next for Gaming Giants as India Resets Digital Playbook
With the Online Gaming Bill 2025 banning real money games involving monetary deposits or fees, is shutting down shops the only way?
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[Image source: Chetan Jha/MITSMR India]
Three weeks after Parliament passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill 2025, the industry is reckoning with the end of real-money games that involve deposits or entry fees. The ban has already forced some of India’s best-known startups to pull back.
Kavin Bharti Mittal, who in 2012 founded Hike, the once-popular homegrown messaging app that later pivoted into real-money gaming, said in a LinkedIn blog that the company will wind down completely.
“Our US business, launched just nine months ago, is off to a strong start. But after the India ban, scaling globally would require a full recap, a reset that is not the best use of capital or time,” he wrote.
For the first time in more than a decade, he concluded, continuing was not worth it for him, his team, or his investors.
That sentiment is now playing out across a sector once valued at $25 billion.
Before the ban, about 400 startups paid close to $2.3 billion in annual taxes and employed more than 200,000 people.
Fantasy sports leader Dream11 had even signed a ₹358-crore sponsorship deal with the Indian cricket team.
The government, however, has consistently argued that games tied to money cause harm. Since 2022, more than 1,500 betting and gambling websites and apps have been blocked.
The August notification that preceded the bill drew a clear line: esports and social games were allowed, but money-based games, whether of chance or skill, were not.
“Online money gaming platforms have caused widespread harm,” the circular said, citing savings wiped out, addictions, and suicides linked to financial stress.
Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw put the number of people negatively affected at 450 million, with losses exceeding ₹20,000 crore (about $2.26 billion).
A police report in August connected at least 32 suicides since 2023 in Karnataka to online gambling, with the actual figure believed to be higher.
Economically, the hit is twofold. GST leakage from offshore operators was pegged at more than $4 billion, outstripping the $3.5 billion generated by India’s regulated real-money gaming sector.
Analysts told Moneycontrol the ban could cost the exchequer ₹10,000–12,000 crore each year.
The fallout has been swift. Unicorns such as Dream11, Games24x7, Gameskraft and MPL have lost their billion-dollar status, while Zupee and WinZO slid from their “gazelle” and “cheetah” labels.
The immediate impact of compliance and tax burdens is negative, but over time, stricter oversight could build greater trust, Anas Rahman Junaid, Founder and Chief Researcher at Hurun India, said in a note.
Companies are already cutting back. WinZO shut its RMG business, MPL has let go of around 300 employees, or nearly 60% of its local workforce, and Zupee has trimmed 170 jobs. Dream11 said it would no longer sponsor India’s men’s cricket team, prompting the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to look for a replacement.
Yet history suggests bans don’t drive players away. After PUBG Mobile was outlawed, gamers used VPNs, third-party APKs or foreign versions of the game to keep playing.
Offshore operators can still accept UPI or card payments, making enforcement difficult, ET reported, citing gaming lawyers.
Still, some firms see opportunity in pivoting. Dream11 has said it will focus on platforms such as Fancode and Sportz Drip, while WinZO announced plans to expand in the US and launch a short-video format called ZO TV.
“Adaptability will decide which companies sustain leadership under this new regulatory regime,” Junaid added in the note.
Whether the bill strengthens India’s digital playbook or pushes gamers into riskier offshore markets remains unresolved. But what is clear is that gaming startups face a key choice: reinvent themselves, look abroad or fade out altogether.
