Supreme Court to Rule on Validity of Online Gaming Ban

The Supreme Court has taken control of all legal challenges to the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, consolidating cases from three high courts under its jurisdiction.

A bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and K.V. Viswanathan accepted the Union government’s plea to transfer petitions pending in the high courts of Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Delhi. The apex court will now examine the Act’s constitutional validity, a move that prevents
lower courts from entertaining further petitions on the issue.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta argued that the disputes overlap with ongoing proceedings on the 28% Goods and Services Tax (GST) applied to online gaming. The Supreme Court has already heard arguments in that case and reserved its judgment. According to Mehta, consolidating the challenges to the Act would “save time” by avoiding duplication.

The 2025 legislation, passed by Parliament in August, imposes a blanket prohibition on online games involving real-money transactions. It criminalises not only operators but also advertisers and payment facilitators, while exempting eSports and casual games without monetary stakes. An authority under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is expected to regulate and promote non-monetised gaming. Petitions against the ban were brought by operators including Clubboom11 Sports & Entertainment in Madhya Pradesh and Bagheera Carrom OPC in Delhi. Both high courts declined to grant interim relief. Just last week, the Madhya Pradesh High Court dismissed an appeal to stay the government’s notification of the Act.

Consolidating the petitions will save time, given the overlap of issues raised in the GST and online gaming cases.

The Future

The Centre has defended the law as necessary to curb gambling and financial crime. IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has pointed to research linking popular platforms such as Dream11, RummyCulture, My11Circle and MPL to money laundering risks. The Cabinet cleared the bill in five days, underscoring the government’s urgency on the matter.

The industry, however, warns of significant fallout. Major firms including Games24x7, MPL and Baazi Games have announced layoffs, while trade groups estimate more than 200,000 jobs across 400 companies could be threatened if the prohibition stands. The Court’s intervention mirrors its handling of the GST dispute last year, when it transferred 27 petitions from nine high courts to itself. Its forthcoming decisions on taxation and now the constitutional scope of the 2025 Act are expected to shape the regulatory landscape for India’s gaming sector for years to come.