Game Over or Just Beginning? A23 Take India’s Online Gaming Ban to High Court:

Game Over or Just Beginning? A23 Take India’s Online Gaming Ban to High Court A23, an online company in India, has written a petition to the Karnataka high court against the newly approved Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025. The petition mentions that the legislation was approved without taking any public consultation and is inconsistent with the government's declared policy towards the online gaming sector. The petitioner files this petition after Parliament passed a bill to ban all online gaming which promotes real money, including Dream11, My1Circle, Winzo, Zupee and others. The Rules applies all over the country and also increase online money gaming services that are offered within India or operated from abroad. While it bans all forms of online money games and related advertising, it creates a structure for the promotion of e-sports and educational games. The law also permits the government to recognize social games that are safe and age-appropriate and to encourage platforms such as educational or skill-based content. The Act creates a national-level Online Gaming Authority to register and categorize online games and decide whether a game qualifies as a money game and address public injustice.

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It also set down penalties and consequences such as imprisonment of nearly three years and fine of upto one crore rupees for offering online money games. Advertising online real money games may attract a jail term of to two years and fines up to fifty lakh rupees with strict consequences. The law allows the central government to authorize officers to investigate or search and seize property or make arrests without any warrant in a few cases. The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023 allows the government to frame rules on e-sports, social games, identification of online games and functioning of the regulatory authority. The Act was made on earlier measures launched under the information technology Act, 2000, the consumer protection act, 2019 and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023. These acts include blocking unlawful websites, penalizing unauthorized betting and gambling, prohibiting misleading advertisements and issuing advisories to media and influencers against promoting betting platforms or applications.