India Orders App Stores And Banks To Cut Off Online Money Games As Site Blocks Near 8,400
India has escalated its shutdown of online real-money gambling, ordering the companies that host, fund and advertise gaming apps to cut them off entirely.
In an advisory dated July 29, 2026, the Online Gaming Authority of India told app stores, cloud providers, telecom and internet firms, banks, social media platforms, streaming services and advertising agencies to disable online money games, block related payments and pull the ads (reported advisory).
The advisory cites Sections 5, 6 and 7 of the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act 2025, which ban offering or abetting an online money game, advertising one, and processing payments toward one.
Crucially, the prohibition applies whether a game is based on skill, chance or both, sweeping in real-money fantasy sports, online poker, cash rummy and online casino play that Indian courts had long treated as games of skill.
How The Law Works
Parliament passed the Act on August 21, 2025, and it took full effect once the accompanying rules were notified on April 22, 2026 and came into force on May 1, 2026 (MeitY). The framework draws a hard three-way line: e-sports and non-monetary social and educational games are encouraged, while all online money games are prohibited outright (Act text).
- The Online Gaming Authority of India, a new regulator under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, oversees the regime and issues compliance directives.
- Financial cutoff. Banks and payment intermediaries are barred from processing deposits or withdrawals for money-gaming services.
- Penalties. Offering or advertising a prohibited game can bring up to three years in prison alongside heavy fines.
Blocks Nearing 8,400
The advisory follows a steady run of site blocking. In March 2026 the government blocked around 300 more betting and gambling sites and apps, including sports betting platforms, online casinos offering slots, roulette and live dealer tables, betting exchanges and satta and matka networks.
That pushed the running total toward 8,400 URLs, of which more than 4,800 were blocked after the Act passed, according to figures the ministry gave Parliament on April 1, 2026.
The government has also moved against prediction markets, issuing blocking orders to Polymarket and Kalshi and warning VPN providers that users were still reaching restricted platforms.
Under the Act, contracts staking money on event outcomes fall within the prohibited category.
What It Means
For licensed operators elsewhere, India is a closed door rather than an opportunity: the market many suppliers once eyed as a growth engine is now off-limits for anything involving a stake.
The open questions are enforcement and leakage. Offshore sites remain reachable by VPN, and cutting payments off at the banking layer is the government's main lever to make the ban bite.
