Haryana's New Anti-Gambling Act: Is It Actually Anti-Online Gaming?

In the absence of clear guidelines from the Centre or centralised regulations for the gaming industry, the $3.8 Bn online gaming industry continues to grapple with uncertainty with several states bringing disparate regulations to address online betting and gambling, often disrupting online gaming and real money gaming platforms.

After Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, Haryana is the latest one, as the state government notified the Haryana Prevention of Public Gambling Act, 2025 last week (May 21) to prevent and penalise public gambling, keeping of common gambling houses, betting in sports or elections, match fixing or spot fixing in sports.

The Act penalises both offline and online betting for monetary as well as non-monetary consideration (like cryptocurrency and other tokens). It prohibits gambling as well as the establishment or operation of gambling houses, including digital gambling platforms accessible in Haryana.

But several online gaming startups feel they are going to get caught in the middle as the state looks to deter gambling online and offline.

Segments such as online fantasy games, opinion trading, real money games, casual games and others have another state-level legislation to tackle.

Gaming Startups Caught In Headwinds

Amid mounting tensions for these platforms, the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) earlier this month told the Supreme Court that .

Additional solicitor general N Venkataraman appearing for DGGI said that speculative outcomes are considered relevant for taxing and whether rummy is a game of skill or chance has no relevance. He underscored that these games are nothing but gambling only.

Reports surfaced last month that the Centre is finalising a move that could bring online real money gaming (RMG) platforms such as Games24x7, Junglee Games, Dream11 and Head Digital Works (A23.

These headwinds come along with state governments bringing their own rules and regulations to deal with these platforms. For instance, the for regulating the online gaming industry.

While state governments have the power to regulate gambling under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India, online gaming platforms feel there needs to be pan-India regulatory framework.

This all comes at the centre of India’s growing gaming market that is anticipated to grow to $9.2 Bn by FY29, as per a report by New Delhi-based venture capital firm Lumikai. By the fiscal year 2024 (FY24), the gaming market stood at $3.8 Bn.

What Haryana’s Anti-Gambling Law Says

The Act states that “gambling” is any act that involves betting or gaming or both, it states that gaming means playing a game of chance using instruments of gambling or otherwise.

Now, there are two aspects to this, one is ascertaining what is a game of chance and the other is understanding the instruments of gambling.

The Haryana law defines a game of chance as any game which has preponderance of chance over skill. This essentially means the player needs a lot more luck or chance than skill to win.

And vice versa, a “game of skill” has a preponderance of skill over chance. This includes games where success depends principally on the superior knowledge, training, attention, experience and adroitness of the player, despite there being an element of chance.

But within Clause 2g of the Act, there is some ambiguity about what is a game of skill. “Provided that the State Government may, notify any game to be included as game of skill,” states the Act.

Prima facie, it appears as if the government will take a call on whether a game can be considered a game of skill or not. Some legal experts differ on this interpretation. .

The other aspect of the Act ‘instrument of gambling’ includes any electronic device used for gambling, any document used to record evidence of gambling, its proceeds or its monetary or non monetary prize.

Game of Skill Or Game of Chance?

According to lawyers and legal experts, the Supreme Court and various High Courts also use the dominant factor or predominance test to distinguish between games of skill and games of chance.

Gambling in India is governed by the Public Gambling Act, 1867 but since it’s an archaic law, it is struggling to accommodate or cover new cases emerging with the rise in online gaming platforms. Now, multiple cases related to gaming companies are pending in multiple high courts for judgements as a clear nationwide guideline on gaming is lacking.

“In a game of skill we accept that all games have some elements of chance but that does not mean that they are all purely gambling or betting. Now that nuance is brought in right from cases in the 1950s around horse racing and rummy when they were discussing is there a preponderance of skill which essentially means does the person to win the game need to exercise more skill or is it more chance,” said Rahil Chatterjee, senior associate at Ikigai Law.

He added that over the years, each court ruling has been context specific. One cannot be applied for the entire industry. The evaluation varies case to case as it is difficult to make a blanket evaluation that classifies what is skill and what’s chance.

“So now states are trying to figure out how to make an evaluation on an online game without going to court,” Chatterjee told Inc42, highlighting that the issue is more about newer game formats.

Anish Jaipuriar, partner at Burgeon Law, says that the definition of games of skill and chance incorporate the tests of predominance of skill or chance, persistence of skill and skill gradient. These tests have been established over multiple judicial pronouncements by delving into the prevailing central and state laws.

However, he mentions that these adaptations may result in uncertainty, as there is no new clarity in the definitions. That’s on the lines of what Chatterjee alluded to. One ruling cannot be applied for more than one type of game.

“The defined terms only incorporate the tests which have been a subject of numerous discussions, interpretations by courts and regulators alike.” Jaipuriar told us, adding that verbatim adaptation is likely to result in subjectivity and uncertainty in appropriately (and correctly) categorising the games.

“The Act (in so far as the definitions are concerned) does not guide the gaming companies in any new way, rather compels such companies to continue to look at judicial pronouncements to structure their businesses and gaming formats,” the Burgeon Law partner added.

Can Online Gaming Expect Centralised Regulations?

The debate keeps coming back into vogue every now and then — should the union government be regulating gaming? Wouldn’t it be better to have one central law that governs all modern games and real money gaming?

Thus far, no real indication of such a law has come. The fact is each state has to adhere to cultural and local norms and it’s therefore impossible to say with certainty that the central government will eventually take on the mantle.

In 2023, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) proposed a self-regulatory mechanism for online gaming companies but at that time also there wasn’t discussion of games of chance or skill.

The rules, published as draft amendments to the IT Rules, 2021, came after the .

The former Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said at the time that the rules regulate betting and is basically a prohibition of wagering on any game. “The online games that offer winnings, any game that allows wagering on the outcome is effectively a no-go area. If you bet on the outcome of a game it is prohibited under 3(1)b under 10,” said Chandrasekhar.

As per the draft rules, online gaming companies are supposed to observe additional due diligence by displaying a registration mark on all online games registered by a self-regulatory body. These self-regulatory bodies were to be registered with the ministry and were supposed to register online games of members of its gaming intermediaries

“Such bodies will also resolve complaints through a grievance redressal mechanism,” said the ministry at the time.

This implies that the rules were articulated allowing the self regulating bodies to conduct the assessment.

“Now this assessment in modern days is now also based on some sort of statistical evaluation. So there are mathematical models that actually look at a game and decide whether it is more skill or more chance and again there is an entire question about the legitimacy of the models,” said Chatterjee.

Even after the rules, the classification remained unclear as there was no mention of game of chance or game of skill.

The Business Disruption For Gaming Startups

Game of skill and game of chance is the contentious area in gambling regulation in India between which some platforms find their safe haven. It’s unlikely to be solved overnight, but the fact is that gaming startups find themselves suddenly on the wrong side of the law.

Take for instance, opinion trading platforms, where users bet on binary or yes/no outcomes of sporting events, political events and weather. The opinion trading platforms set the odds and take the bets, making money when a player loses.

One such platform MPL Opinio has reportedly paused its operations in Haryana even before the formal notification brought the Act into force. One could argue that there’s no certainty in the outcome of a particular opinion so such models could have been scrutinised rightfully by the state government.

However, sources in the industry told us, opinion trading platforms are walking a thin line. Others such as Probo and TradeX have seen some pushback. The latter has even shut down real money gaming and moved to a free-to-play, casual social gaming platform.

TradeX said that the shut down was on account of heavy 28% GST on online gaming platforms that favours bigger players and made growth and profitability difficult.

In another recent development which might bring temporary relief to opinion trading platforms, the SC has asked Chhattisgarh and Gujarat HCs to pause hearings of PILs challenging the validity of opinion trading as games of skill, as per TOI.

Fantasy gaming is another significant part of India’s gaming industry that counts players like Dream11, My11Circle and MyFab11 among others.

The gaming industry is currently in a limbo and awaiting clear communication from either state governments or central government on what is allowed and what’s not.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson of Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS) says that Haryana’s Act exempts games of skill that adhere to the body’s charter. FiFS is a self regulatory industry body for the fantasy sports industry.

The federation claims that platforms like Dream11, My11Circle, and MPL, and new entrants like Choic11, Kubera Fantasy, and Spice Fantasy adhere to the charter.

“The Haryana Prevention of Public Gambling Act, 2025 categorically exempts ‘Games of Skill. Fantasy Sports formats that adhere to the FIFS charter are not covered under the Act as they have been affirmed as games of skill by the judgements passed by multiple high courts including the Hon’ble Punjab & Haryana, Rajasthan, Bombay & Karnataka High Court. The appeals filed against the judgements of the above high courts have been adjudicated on merits by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India. The issue of whether FIFS based Fantasy Sports formats are betting & gambling is settled in law,” said FIFS spokesperson.

While bigger players in the online gaming industry are adhering to self regulatory bodies as using them as shields after the 2023 IT rules, smaller startups are struggling to find a footing.

But large or small — centralised regulations seem to be the primary demand for all startups, as this could actually create a level-playing field.

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