India’s Union Council of Ministers, the country’s main executive body, has proposed a bill to the legislature which if approved will ban various forms of online gaming – including lotteries.
The “Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025” was proposed to the Lok Sabha, the Lower House of India’s Parliament, earlier today (Wednesday 20 August).
Included in the bill are a number of unprecedented measures for India, a country where both online and retail gambling regulations are highly fragmented between the state and federal level.
The main targets of the legislation are what the government terms ‘real-money games’, i.e. online games where participants must pay for entry and stand to win a cash prize as a result.
Although the legislation’s stance on sports betting is not clear, it has offered little differentiation between games of chance like lotteries and games of skill like rummy and poker.
Lotteries, although widely regarded internationally as having less potential for gambling-related harm in comparison to casino-esque products like poker, are covered under the bill – though this only applies to privately run online lotteries.
Where do lotteries stand in India?
The proposed ban – key word being proposed as it has only just been introduced to the legislature today and has to be approved by both chambers – will only prohibit the creation of online, private, for-profit lotteries.
This means that the various state-run lotteries all across India will continue to function, regardless if the bill is passed or not. Lotteries in India are traditionally a state matter regarding both regulation and operation.
As it stands, 13 Indian states have a government-run lottery – Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Goa, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Sikkim, and West Bengal.
For the most part, state lotteries sell paper tickets, and do not have an online version. This makes private online lotteries more appealing to some customers due to the convenience involved.
Some state governments have clamped down on private lotteries as a result, and it now appears that the federal government wants to do the same – alongside other forms of remote gaming.
As noted above, the ban will apply to other games of chance like poker and rummy. The situation around sports betting is less clear, but real money fantasy sports tournaments will be banned, although e-sports has been given the all clear.
This latter element of the bill is something the government has done in the past, distinguishing India’s burgeoning esports scene from other forms of online gaming.