(On 21 August, 2025, Thursday, India's Parliament approved the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, to prohibit online games involving monetary stakes. The move has been met with contrasting reactions with some hailing it as positive step in curbing the financial and social risks of online gambling. Critics have raised concerns over the significant threat to the thriving fantasy gaming industry.
In this counterview, Madhavan Narayanan argues that the instead of a blanket ban on money games, the government could have considered a middle ground for soft landing to allow for a transition arrangement that helps both lawmakers and gaming companies. Read the view of the gaming bill here.)
Circa 1990, the man who proudly wore the label of being India's highest income tax payer was a lottery ticket seller. Ashwani Khurana's family controlled about 20 percent of India's lottery business, then estimated at around Rs 1,600 crore.
Things came apart over the next two decades. Only 13 Indian states, most of them in the North-East, now permit lottery tickets. But those 13 are here to show that the desire to legally earn big bucks purely on chance is alive and kicking.
I had a first-hand glimpse of it during a recent visit to Kerala, where I saw people stepping out of temples to meet lottery ticket sellers, perhaps hoping that their prayers inside might be answered.