The 30-second answer
No — not if money is staked. Online money games are prohibited across the whole of India under the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 (PROGA).
The Act received Presidential assent on 22 August 2025, the Online Gaming Rules were notified on 22 April 2026, and the prohibition took effect on 1 May 2026.
The critical point, and the one most pages on the internet still get wrong: the ban does not care whether the game is skill or chance. Any online game where a player pays a fee or deposits money in the expectation of a monetary return is prohibited. Rummy, poker and fantasy sports were all games of skill under decades of Supreme Court precedent, and all of them are covered. There is no licence, no registration route and no transitional window that makes an online cash game lawful in India today.
What remains legal is esports, which the Act actively promotes, and online social games played without a stake.
If you are here because money is sitting in an app that stopped paying, the law is not your problem — the wind-down process is. Skip to recovering a balance from a shut-down app.
What this page is. A plain reading of what PROGA prohibits and permits, with the dates and penalty provisions. It is not legal advice. Where we could not verify a point from the statute, the rules or a named legal analysis, the page says so rather than guessing.
What the Act prohibits
PROGA divides online games into three categories and treats them very differently.
| Category | Definition | Status under PROGA |
|---|---|---|
| Online money game | Any online game where a user pays a fee, deposit or stake expecting monetary or equivalent return — skill-based or not | Prohibited. No licensing route exists. |
| Esports | Competitive video gaming, registered and organised as sport | Permitted and promoted. Recognised as a legitimate sporting activity. |
| Online social game | Played for entertainment, recreation or skill development without a money stake | Permitted. |
The prohibition reaches past the operator. Three distinct things are offences: offering an online money game, advertising or promoting one, and facilitating payments for one — which is why banks and payment providers withdrew from the sector rather than continuing to process gaming transactions.
Penalties
Drawn from Sections 5, 9 and 11 of PROGA:
- Offering an online money game, or facilitating payment for one — imprisonment up to three years and a fine up to ₹1 crore. These are cognisable and non-bailable offences, meaning arrest without warrant is possible and bail is not a matter of right.
- Advertising or promoting an online money game — imprisonment up to two years and a fine up to ₹50 lakh.
- Repeat offences carry mandatory minimum sentences.
The offences as drafted are aimed at operators, advertisers and payment facilitators. We have not been able to verify a provision creating criminal liability for an ordinary player, and we are not going to assert one either way — if you need a position on your own exposure, that is a question for a lawyer, not a website.
Why “but rummy is a game of skill” no longer helps
For decades the skill-versus-chance distinction was the whole ballgame. The Supreme Court held rummy to be a game of skill in State of Andhra Pradesh v. K. Satyanarayana (1968), horse racing in Dr. K.R. Lakshmanan v. State of Tamil Nadu (1996), and High Courts extended similar reasoning to fantasy sports. Operators built an industry on those judgments, and state gambling statutes — which almost all carve out games of skill — left them room to run.
PROGA closed that route deliberately. It defines the prohibited category by the presence of a stake, not by the character of the game. A skill-based cash game and a chance-based cash game are now in exactly the same position. The old case law still stands for what it decided; it simply no longer determines whether an online cash game is lawful.
This is the single biggest reason to distrust any page — including pages that still rank well — telling you that registered operators can offer skill games nationwide. That framework was proposed in earlier drafts. It is not the law that came into force.
Where state law fits now
Betting and gambling sit under the State List (Entry 34, List II) of the Constitution, and states such as Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Assam had already banned real-money online gaming before PROGA. Tamil Nadu’s attempt was litigated for years.
That patchwork now matters much less than it used to, for a simple reason: the central prohibition is stricter than any of the state laws and applies everywhere. Checking whether your state permits online rummy is no longer a useful step, because the answer nationally is already no.
Two points where state law still does work:
- Offline and physical gambling — casinos in Goa, Daman and Sikkim, state lotteries, and licensed physical venues are governed by state law and are outside PROGA’s scope, which covers online games.
- The state licensing regimes in Sikkim, Nagaland and Meghalaya continue to exist on their own terms, but a state licence cannot authorise what a central statute prohibits.
We have deliberately removed the state-by-state “where you can play” table that previously sat on this page. It described a permission structure that does not exist, and a table like that invites exactly the wrong conclusion.
What happened to the major operators
Every significant Indian operator suspended cash formats within days of the Act passing, in late August 2025 — before the rules were even drafted. Dream11, MPL, RummyCircle, My11Circle, Junglee Rummy, PokerBaazi, Adda52, A23, Zupee, WinZO and RummyCulture all stopped cash play. Most kept withdrawals open so users could take balances out; Gameskraft wound RummyCulture down entirely rather than litigate.
Per-app status, shutdown dates and the recovery route for each are maintained in the RMG app shutdown tracker.
Some operators challenged the law — Head Digital Works, which runs A23 and Adda52, led a petition in the Karnataka High Court. Litigation does not lock up user wallets, and it has not restored cash play.
Offshore and clone apps are the live danger. Operators that never cared about Indian law did not stop, and they are now the main source of complaints in the cyber-crime system. They are unlawful for anyone to offer to Indian users, they sit outside every domestic recovery route, and money that goes into them is usually gone. Our red flags guide covers how to recognise them.
Tax still applies to money you receive
The ban going forward does not erase tax obligations on winnings already credited, including amounts paid out during a wind-down.
Section 194BA requires 30% TDS on net winnings — your withdrawals minus your deposits over the financial year, not gross receipts. The platform deducts at payout and issues a TDS certificate.
Because TDS is deducted at a flat 30% while your actual liability depends on your total income and slab, over-deduction is common and refundable. Claiming it requires filing a return: our guide to claiming a gaming TDS refund covers the ITR route, and the ITR filing guide for gaming income covers which schedule the income belongs in.
One trap worth naming: if your PAN is inoperative, Section 206AA imposes a higher deduction floor. Fixing the PAN status before requesting a payout is cheaper than reclaiming the difference later.
Frequently asked questions
Is playing rummy for money legal in India?
No, not online. PROGA prohibits online money games regardless of skill, and rummy’s status as a game of skill does not exempt it. Rummy played offline for stakes is governed by state gambling law, which varies.
Is fantasy sports legal?
Not as a cash contest. Fantasy sports was upheld as skill-based by the Bombay High Court (2019) and Rajasthan High Court (2020), but PROGA’s definition captures it because a stake is paid. Dream11 suspended real-money operations on 23 August 2025 and has not resumed. Free-to-play fantasy contests with no entry fee fall under “online social games” and remain permitted.
Are colour prediction and Aviator games legal?
No. They were unlawful as games of chance before PROGA under most state statutes, and they are squarely prohibited now. Apps still offering them to Indian users are operating illegally, typically from offshore. If you have lost money to one, the route is a cyber-crime complaint rather than an operator grievance — see online gaming fraud and money recovery.
Can I still withdraw a balance I already had?
Usually yes, and this is the part most people get wrong. The ban stops new deposits and cash play; it did not confiscate existing balances. Most operators kept withdrawals open specifically so users could exit. There is no statutory deadline to do this — a 180-day refund window appeared in the October 2025 draft rules and was removed before the final Rules were notified — so your leverage is the operator’s own published wind-down promise, consumer protection law, and the RBI/NPCI payment-rail rules. Do not read the absence of a deadline as safety: support teams are shrinking. See recovering a balance from a shut-down app.
What if an app refuses to pay out my balance?
Work the grievance ladder: the platform’s own grievance officer first, then escalation, then the National Consumer Helpline (1915), and the RBI Ombudsman where the failure is on the bank or payment-service side. How to complain about an RMG app in India sets out the sequence and the time limits at each step.
Where can I get help if gaming has become a problem?
The cash formats are gone, but the harm did not go with them. Our gambling addiction help page lists Tele-MANAS (14416), iCALL and the Vandrevala Foundation, each with its official source.
Summary
- Online money games are prohibited nationwide, skill or chance, since 1 May 2026. No licence changes that.
- Esports and stake-free social games remain legal. That is the line — the stake, not the skill.
- A balance from before the shutdown is still yours, and recoverable through the operator’s wind-down process. Start now rather than later, while support still exists.
- Tax on winnings already received still applies, and over-deducted TDS is refundable through your return.