Indian President Droupadi Murmu yesterday gave her assent to The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025 — passed by Parliament earlier this week — that seeks to regulate online gaming, prohibiting harmful online money gaming services, advertisements and financial transactions related to them.

The Bill seeks to completely ban offering, operating, or facilitating online money games, irrespective of whether based on skill, chance, or both. A request made on Aug 21 in Rajya Sabha by CPM member of parliament John Brittas to refer the Bill to a parliamentary panel was rejected, media reports had said.

Even as the President gave her nod, a Reuters report yesterday stated that some of India’s top mobile gaming apps have suspended real-money games after parliament passed a ban on Thursday, threatening the future of a sector once projected to hit $3.6 billion by 2029.

The sudden ban on online real-money games, along with related ads and payment services, has jolted an industry backed by investors such as Tiger Global and Peak XV Partners. Popular apps like Dream11, PokerBaazi and Mobile Premier League have halted their real-money offerings, the companies said.

Justifying the ban, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government flagged the high risk of financial harm to users and called them “harmful” due to potential psychological damage.

The ban sparked a sell-off in Nazara Tech’s stock, which has a 46.07 percent stake in PokerBaazi operator Moonshine Technologies, which ceased yesterday offering online games played with money.

Indian gaming firms are consulting lawyers on moving the Supreme Court against the ban, arguing it lacked consultation, threatens a fast-growing sector, and wrongly includes skill-based games like poker, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing two gaming industry sources with direct knowledge of the matter.