India gambling licence: no online licence

Online gaming sits with MeitY, and OGAI was constituted on 22 April 2026 under section 8 of the Act. OGAI does not license online money games, because section 5 prohibits them. It decides whether a game is an online money game and registers e-sports and online social games. Betting and gambling is also a State List subject, so each State keeps its own law.

• OGAI is chaired ex officio by an Additional Secretary of MeitY, with joint-secretary members from the Home Ministry, Financial Services, Information and Broadcasting, Youth Affairs and Sports, and Legal Affairs. Its head office is in the National Capital Territory of Delhi.
• Offences under sections 5 and 7 are investigated by State and Union Territory cyber-cell police officers authorised under section 15.
• Anti-money-laundering supervision sits with FIU-IND under the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002; a separate advertising regulator does not exist (see Advertising).

Laws that apply

• Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 (Act 32 of 2025): assent 22 August 2025, in force in full on 1 May 2026 (S.O. 1994(E) of 22 April 2026)
• Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Rules, 2026 (G.S.R. 303(E), 22 April 2026) · S.O. 1992(E) (constitution of OGAI) · S.O. 1993(E) (officers authorised to investigate)
• OGAI advisory on sections 5, 6 and 7 (dated 29 July 2026) · MeitY advisory to VPN providers and intermediaries (25 April 2026)
• Sikkim Online Gaming (Regulation) Act, 2008 · Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 · Nagaland Prohibition of Gambling and Promotion and Regulation of Online Games of Skill Act, 2015 (effect after 1 May 2026 not stated) · Goa, Daman and Diu Public Gambling Act, 1976 (land-based)
• Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, as amended in 2023, with Notification 9/2025-Central Tax (Rate) and rule 31B · Income-tax Act, 2025 · Finance Act, 2026
• Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002, and the Maintenance of Records Rules, 2005 · Information Technology Act, 2000, s. 69A, and the IT Rules, 2021 as amended in 2023

An online money game is an online game played by paying fees, depositing money or other stakes in expectation of winning, irrespective of whether it is based on skill, chance or both (section 2(1)(g)). Purchased credits, coins and tokens count as stakes (section 2(1)(j)). E-sports (section 2(1)(c)) and online social games (section 2(1)(i)) are outside that definition.

• OGAI must publish a list of games it has determined to be online money games (Rules r. 26). As of 9 October 2026 no list, and no record of determined or registered games, was published on the MeitY site.
• E-sports are recognised under the National Sports Governance Act, 2025; registration or participation fees and performance-based prize money are allowed, bets are not. Online social games allow a subscription or one-time access fee, but no stake and no expectation of money winnings.
• No cap on the number of registrations is stated. Registration is separate for each online game of every provider (Rules r. 12(4)).

Sikkim, Meghalaya and Nagaland still print licences for online games. The Act has no carve-out for State-licensed operators; its only saving is section 18, which gives it overriding effect over any inconsistent law. No central or State notification dealing with the point was found, and none of these licences has been tested against section 5.

• For a first-year committed total, the printed figures (not shown to be current) are Rs 10.06 crore for Sikkim and Rs 4.02 crore for Meghalaya, before gross gaming yield above the levy floor or the royalty; Nagaland cannot be computed. These are not a cost of entering the Indian market, because the effect of the licences after 1 May 2026 is not stated.
• Nagaland’s Directorate lists 11 licences issued to firms for online games of skill between 14 December 2016 and 11 October 2018, two marked inactive. The page shows licences issued, not licences active in 2026.
• No State licence register is published for Sikkim or Meghalaya.

The Rules set no refusal test for a determination. An e-sport is registered only on OGAI being satisfied that it is recognised under the National Sports Governance Act, 2025, and an online money game is not eligible for recognition or registration as an e-sport (Rules r. 12(3), 13(3)).

• No local entity is required. The OGAI form has an Indian route (company, LLP, partnership, proprietorship, society, individual) and a foreign route for foreign nationals and entities, and it asks for a company registration ID, LEI and D-U-N-S numbers.
• No minimum share capital, local office or local bank account is required. An authorised representative with an authorisation letter and a contact person or grievance officer are named on the form; there is no residence test.
• No shareholder, beneficial owner or fit-and-proper test applies, and no criminal record certificate is listed. The form asks for the applicant’s CIN, PAN, GST, LEI and D-U-N-S identifiers.
• No application window is stated. Incomplete or incorrectly filled applications are liable to be rejected without notice.
• No certification or testing laboratory is required before applying. The form asks whether age verification, anti-addiction, fair-play and integrity monitoring and other user-safety features are in place.

The application is the OGAI form (updated 31 August 2026), emailed with self-attested copies of the supporting documents to [email protected]. Rule 23 and the form list what goes in.

• No business plan or financial projection is asked for; the form asks for the revenue model.
• OGAI may by notice require additional details within a time it specifies, and may return an incomplete application for recorded reasons (Rules r. 10(1)(b)).
• A determination order is specific to the game and the provider (Rules r. 10(2) Explanation).

The Act, the Rules and the OGAI form prescribe no application fee, issuance fee or annual fee for a determination or a registration. There is no Year-1 licensing total, because no money-game licence can be obtained.

• No bank guarantee, financial contribution or responsible-gambling levy is prescribed centrally. Penalties collected under the Act are credited to the Consolidated Fund of India (Rules r. 22).
• No separate fee for added games is stated; registration is separate for each game (Rules r. 12(4)).
• No supplier or B2B fee exists, because no B2B licence exists. State fees are in the State licences section and apply only if a State licence is shown to operate online.

The GST rule sits beside the ban: no official text read states that the GST provisions were withdrawn when section 5 took effect on 1 May 2026. The figures below are the rules as printed.

• The person who owns, operates or manages the platform is the deemed supplier. A supplier outside India is liable to IGST on supplies to a person in India and must register under the Simplified Registration Scheme (IGST Act s. 14A).
• Whether an operator-funded bonus credit is part of the GST value is not stated. Winnings re-played without withdrawal are not counted as an amount paid or deposited.
• No advertising, sponsorship or other gambling-specific central tax was found. GST return and payment periods were not established.
• The payer deducts tax on online-game winnings on net winnings at the end of the tax year and at each withdrawal (s. 393(3)).

There is no technical standard for online money games, because they cannot be offered. For e-sports and online social games the Rules let OGAI issue directions on fair play and cyber security (r. 6(4)(g)-(h)); none was published on the OGAI page as of 9 October 2026.

• Data is to be kept on computer resources located in India, as OGAI directions specify (Rules r. 17). No retention period is fixed and no direction has been published.
• A determined or registered game must prominently display the determination or registration details on the computer resource through which it is offered (Rules r. 15(a)).
• A no-stake game is outside the ban, but a demo mode using credits bought with money could fall within it (section 2(1)(j)). OGAI decides game by game, looking at the revenue model.
• No rule was found on return to player, maximum stakes, jackpots, autoplay, turbo play, bonus-buy features or near-miss mechanics. Display requirements for the player in or around the game were not established.
• State licensees have server certification rules against State schedules (Meghalaya r. 21, Sikkim r. 8 and 9); these apply only if a State licence is shown to operate online.

Central rules for e-sports and online social games name user-safety features and leave the detail to OGAI directions. No central minimum gambling age is set, since online money games are banned.

• A further appeal lies to the Appellate Authority within 30 days of OGAI’s decision, to be decided preferably within 30 days (Rules r. 7). OGAI may order corrective or remedial measures; no express power to order repayment to players is stated.
• The IT Rules, 2021 obligations for online gaming intermediaries do not apply until three months after at least three self-regulatory bodies are designated under rule 4A; no designation was found.
• Payments: banks and payment providers must verify the Certificate of Registration before facilitating funds for an e-sport or social game (Rules r. 19(1)) and must stop transactions for a game determined to be an online money game on OGAI’s order (r. 19(2)).

Advertising an online money game is banned in any media (section 6), punishable by up to 2 years and/or Rs 50 lakh, and by 2 to 3 years and Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore on a repeat conviction (section 9(2), (5)).

• The ban covers anyone who makes, causes to be made, aids, abets or induces such an advertisement. The OGAI advisory of 29 July 2026 names advertising agencies, social media intermediaries, OTT platforms and app stores, and tells them to build automated or manual compliance systems.
• E-sports and online social games may be advertised, but no game may be advertised as determined or registered unless it is (Rules r. 15(b)).
• Influencers and endorsers: the Central Consumer Protection Authority may fine an endorser of a false or misleading advertisement up to Rs 10 lakh, and Rs 50 lakh for each later contravention (Consumer Protection Act, 2019, s. 21).
• The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting advised on 21 March 2024 that online advertisement intermediaries should not target offshore betting advertisements at Indian audiences. How offshore brands promote themselves anyway: through surrogate news sites and celebrity endorsements, as those advisories describe.
• There is no pre-approval scheme for advertising and no separate affiliate regime. Company officers are personally liable where an offence was committed with their consent, connivance or neglect (section 11).

The Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002 treats a person carrying on activities for playing games of chance for cash or kind as a reporting entity. No FIU-IND notification specific to online gaming was found.

• Records of transactions are kept for five years from the transaction; client identity records for five years after the relationship ends (PMLA s. 12).
• A Principal Officer must be named to FIU-IND, with no residence test. Suspicious transactions are reported promptly in writing; cash transactions above Rs 10 lakh and series totalling more than Rs 10 lakh in a month are recorded; cash-transaction reports are due by the 15th of the next month.
• Section 7 of the Act bars any bank, financial institution or other person from facilitating payment for an online money gaming service: up to 3 years and/or Rs 1 crore (section 9(3)).
• No periodic operator report, external audit or incident-reporting duty is set centrally for e-sports and social games; OGAI directions could set them and none was found. Changes to payment facilitation must be notified to OGAI before they go live (Rules r. 10(2)(b)(iii)).

No supplier, platform, aggregator, affiliate or hosting licence exists, and no foreign supplier licence is recognised. The ban reaches the whole chain.

• Sikkim and Meghalaya let a licensee offer its licensed games through another person’s website or brand with intimation or permission; the other person holds no licence. Their effect after 1 May 2026 is not stated.
• No official register of approved suppliers exists.

Enforcement is by criminal sanction, blocking and payment orders, with an administrative penalty for failing to comply with OGAI directions (section 12: up to Rs 10 lakh, or suspension or cancellation of registration).

• Offering an online money game, or aiding or abetting it: up to 3 years and/or Rs 1 crore; repeat conviction 3 to 5 years and Rs 1 crore to Rs 2 crore. Sections 5 and 7 offences are cognizable and non-bailable (section 10).
• Information about an online money gaming service is liable to be blocked under section 14 and section 69A of the Information Technology Act. MeitY has issued 1,298 blocking directions on betting, gambling and gaming websites and apps for 2022 to 2024 (PIB, 19 March 2025).
• Authorised officers may enter any physical or digital place and arrest without a warrant anyone reasonably suspected of an offence (section 16(1)).
• The Act creates no offence for a player. Tamil Nadu penalises the player under its own Act (up to three months or Rs 5,000), and Sikkim fines a player who breaches licence conditions on a licensed website.
• No OGAI penalty order, court ruling under the Act or largest decided fine has been published as of 23 October 2026. The Supreme Court has the challenges to the Act transferred to it; the current stage of the challenge is not stated.
• No bill is before Parliament as of 9 October 2026. The Central Government may notify categories of online social games for determination or registration (Rules r. 8(1)(c), 12(1)(a)); no such notification was found.

This is the only central route, and it is not a gambling licence: no bet, wager or stake may be taken on the registered game. An operator who wants to take stakes has no licence to apply for.

1. 01

   Confirm the product takes no stake

   no bets, wagers or stakes by anyone

   Check the game against section 2(1)(g) and (j). Entry fees, deposits and bought credits, coins or tokens are stakes if play is in expectation of winning money. An e-sport must involve no bets by anyone; an online social game must involve no stake and no expectation of money winnings.

2. 02

   Establish e-sport recognition, if the game is an e-sport

   National Sports Governance Act, 2025

   OGAI registers an e-sport only on being satisfied that it is recognised under the National Sports Governance Act, 2025. An online money game is not eligible for recognition or registration as an e-sport (Rules r. 12(3), 13(3)).

3. 03

   Decide whether a determination is needed

   voluntary for most games; 90 days

   Any online game may be put to OGAI voluntarily for determination. It is required where OGAI directs it, where the provider wants the game offered as an e-sport, or where the Central Government notifies a category (Rules r. 8(1)). OGAI aims to decide within 90 days of a complete application, excluding time to furnish further information (r. 10(3)).

4. 04

   File the OGAI application form

   no fee; email with self-attested documents

   Complete the form (updated 31 August 2026) and email it with the documents listed in Rule 23 to [email protected]. Registration is per game and per provider. Foreign applicants use Part II of the form.

5. 05

   Receive the Certificate of Registration

   90 days from a complete application (e-sport)

   An e-sport is registered within 90 days of a complete application (Rules r. 13(3)). The digital Certificate carries a unique registration number and is valid for the period up to ten years stated in the application, unless surrendered, suspended or cancelled (r. 14).

6. 06

   Operate within the Rules

   display, grievances, directions

   Show the registration details where the game is offered, and do not advertise a game as registered unless it is (r. 15). Keep a grievance mechanism (r. 20). Follow OGAI directions on data, user safety and reporting (r. 6(4)). A change that makes the game likely to be an online money game puts the Certificate at risk (r. 14(3)). The Rules set no renewal procedure.

Tier-ordered: official government first, then practitioner, then trade media. Every primary figure was read from the in-force text on 23 Oct 2026.