India PROG Act, 2025 receives Presidential assent (22 Aug 2025)

The gazette PDF hosted by MeitY, The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 (32 of 2025), records that the Act of Parliament received the assent of the President on 22 August 2025 and was published for general information the same day (Legislative Department notification).

Operator-relevant prohibitions in the Act text

The Act’s long title and operative chapters promote e-sports, educational and social gaming while prohibiting offering, operation, facilitation, advertisement, promotion and participation in online money games. On the body-read text:

• Section 5 prohibits offering, aiding, abetting, inducing or otherwise engaging in offering an online money game / online money gaming service.
• Section 6 prohibits making or causing advertisements that directly or indirectly promote or induce playing an online money game.
• Section 7 prohibits banks, financial institutions or any other person from facilitating financial transactions or authorising funds toward payment for an online money game.
• Penalty architecture under Section 9 (as later restated in the OGAI advisory) includes imprisonment and fines scaled by offence and repetition.

E-sports and online social games are defined separately from online money games and are framed for recognition/registration rather than blanket prohibition.

Limits

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Research checked 20 September 2026. Local draft; human editorial review pending.