The ban on real-money games (RMG) in India earlier this year shook all global stakeholders as a gut punch dished by the Lok Sabha to operators eyeing up prospects in the world’s most populous country.

Home to 1.4 billion people, the world’s fifth largest economy, a vibrant and developing technology sector and strong appetite for sports, particularly cricket, India was seen by many as the future boom market. Furthermore, many observers believed that India by virtue of its market size, would be the catalyst for further  Asian markets to regulate frameworks for online gambling or RMG. 

What the RMG ban shows us is the importance of strategic planning – operators should expect the unexpected, as Ohad Straschnov, VP of Compliance at B2B betting solutions firm Soft2Bet, said on a recent SBC webinar.

“Ideally have transparent dialogue with regulators or people who have a bit of an understanding of the politics of the climate and can assist – as is the case in India where they have just amended the law to retreat real money gambling in the country, which was not expected – that is another layer of strategy here is another layer of strategy that operators should follow.

“We definitely do it, but even in the case when you do do it, it’s very difficult to know what’s going to come next.”

The ban on RMG has flipped Indian regulation on its head. Pay-to-play fantasy sports was thrown out, ending Dream11‘s sponsorship of the India national cricket team and prompting its expansion into other markets. 

Flutter Entertainment, which was seeing growing engagement and revenue from its Indian operations, was also forced to withdraw, calling its own pay-to-play fantasy sports platform and poker and rummy platforms quits.

This does not mean that iGaming and sports betting have no future in the country, however. Three Indian states have regulated local frameworks for RMG – Goa, Daman, and Sikkim. 

In addition, close attention is being paid to regulatory developments in the state of Karnataka, where the Legislative Assembly is seeking to pass the new Karnataka Police (Amendment) Bill 2025, which would establish a specific Gaming & Betting Regulatory Authority to oversee the state’s first standalone framework for skill-based games. 

Anyone with an interest in Indian gaming will need to keep local market considerations in mind, however, whether these by regulatory or cultural, as explained by Ronak Shah, Legal and Compliance Manager at EasyGo, operator of the Stake international brand.

“We need to understand the market dynamics in the way that every state in India has its own regulations to bring in terms of gambling laws. Gambling per say is illegal but there is a differentiation between games of chance and games of skill.

“Games of chance have always been prohibited in India while games of skill have been disputed in the courts, where games such as poker and esports are being questioned, whether they are legal or not.

“Most of the courts have been in favour of these being games of skill, but with recent government law which prohibits the RMG space, it’s quite evident that we need to understand not just the consumer behaviour but also the bigger taxation, digital infrastructure, and research that goes beyond your demographics.”

Click HERE to view the full webinar.