{"id":51855,"date":"2025-08-21T21:11:57","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T15:41:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=51855"},"modified":"2025-08-23T12:12:26","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T06:42:26","slug":"online-gaming-bill-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/21-08-2025\/online-gaming-bill-2025","title":{"rendered":"The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/Governance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Lok Sabha has passed The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Bill seeks to <strong>prohibit online money games,<\/strong> and promote and regulate certain other online games.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Major Provisions<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Online Money Game Definition: <\/strong>An online game that involves a user paying money or other stakes in expectation of receiving monetary or other enrichment.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>This is irrespective of whether the game is based on skill, chance, or both.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Also include credits, coins, and tokens equivalent or convertible to money.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Prohibition on online money games:<\/strong> The Bill prohibits offering or aiding online money games and related services.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It also prohibits advertising, and facilitating financial transactions for such games.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Blocking Games:<\/strong> It empowers the central government to block any information related to online money gaming services from public access.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Promotion of e-sports and online social games:<\/strong>&nbsp; E-sport is defined as an online game that: is played as part of multi-sports events,\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>is recognised under the National Sports Governance Act, 2025<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>has outcome determined solely by factors such as physical dexterity, mental agility, strategic thinking, or similar skills,&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>and involves organised competitive events conducted in multiplayer format and governed by pre-defined rules.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It must not involve placing of bets or other stakes, or expectation of any winning out of such stakes.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The central government may:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>create a mechanism for registration of e-sports and online social games,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>specify guidelines for conducting e-sports events,&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>establish training academies for e-sports,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>incentivise promotion of e-sport technology platforms,&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>and support initiatives that increase public access to safe social gaming content.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Authority on Online Gaming: <\/strong>The central government may constitute an Authority with powers to determine whether an online game qualifies as an online money game, and recognise, categorise, and register online games.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Search and arrest without warrant:<\/strong> The Bill empowers authorised officers to enter and search any place without a warrant.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Places include buildings, vehicles, electronic records, and virtual digital spaces (such as emails and social media).&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>They may also arrest a suspect found during the search without a warrant.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Offences and penalties: Offering online money gaming services <\/strong>will be punishable with imprisonment for up to three years, a fine up to one crore rupees, or both.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Advertising online money game<\/strong>s will be punishable with imprisonment up to two years, a fine up to Rs 50 lakh, or both.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Facilitating financial transactions<\/strong> for such services will be punishable with imprisonment up to three years, a fine up to one crore rupees, or both.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>A repeat offence would <\/strong>attract enhanced penalties, including jail for 3-5 years and fine of up to \u20b92 crore.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Need for the Bill<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Lack of Framework:<\/strong> The lack of a legal framework has hindered the sector\u2019s structured development and the promotion of responsible gaming practices, requiring urgent policy intervention and support mechanisms.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Major Concerns: <\/strong>The proliferation of online money games through mobile phones, computers and the internet, and offering monetary returns has led to serious social, financial, psychological and public health harms.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Significance&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The bill will establish a<strong> uniform and national-level legal framework<\/strong> in the public interest.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Bill will<strong> protect the country\u2019s youth<\/strong> from predatory online Real Money Gaming apps which manipulate them through misleading monetary return promises.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The introduction of the Bill reflects the Government\u2019s commitment to a safe, secure, and innovation-driven Digital India that boosts creativity, safeguards citizens, and strengthens national security.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/lok-sabha-passes-bill-to-ban-online-games-played-with-money\/article69955834.ece\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>TH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">The Lok Sabha has passed The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Need for the Bill<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Lack of Framework: The lack of a legal framework has hindered the sector\u2019s structured development and the promotion of responsible gaming practices, requiring urgent policy intervention and support mechanisms.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Major Concerns: The proliferation of online money games through mobile phones, computers and the internet, and offering monetary returns has led to serious social, financial, psychological and public health harms.<\/li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/21-08-2025\/online-gaming-bill-2025\" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read\u00a0More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51855"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51905,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51855\/revisions\/51905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}