DC Edit | Will Gaming Ban Save India’s Youth?

Parliament passing the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, effectively bans all online gaming played with money. Addiction, money laundering and financial fraud linked to some of the online platforms are said to be the reasons why the government has taken this stand.

It is of greater importance that Indian society, with millions of its youth rendered restless in search of a bright future, needed this regulation, however severe the law seems in banning all activity associated with the sites like advertising, celebrity endorsements in traditional media, social media and digital platforms.

Of all the ills associated with the online gaming industry that came with a bang on models built for first world societies and flourished in India, this addiction of youth could be the worst. Millions of middle-class families have been stressed by young people taking to online gaming and outright gambling on sports. They have invariably landed themselves and their families in an eternal net of debt.

Family-rooted Indian society that protects its youth until they settle in life may be considered more vulnerable to such addiction that creeps in unnoticed. They may not have the maturity that the young people of more evolved societies who learn to live on their own in early adulthood may possess.

It is not just the suicide rate associated with uncontrolled online gambling, even in such areas as fantasy gaming, which may have led to such stringent controls being brought in. For too long, the specious reasoning that some of the gaming offered as in rummy and poker are more games of skill than luck has helped the industry grow to such proportions.

The government concedes that around 45 crore people have lost an estimated Rs 20,000 crore every year in online gaming, leading to the world’s leading companies in this sphere heading to India and ladling out dollops in sponsoring sport, advertising and endorsements while paying GST and income tax, too.

There will be substantial hits to government coffers, and a lot of gaming might go dark via VPN on to international sites. Cutting easy access to this infectious habit of predicting outcomes is what the bill aims to do. The treasury can withstand the drop as the financial well-being and mental health of young people are more important to the nation.