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The move comes after Parliament passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, to ban online money games while promoting eSports and online social gaming.
Mobile Premier League (MPL) halts its real-money offerings and said it “respects the rule of law and will comply fully” with the ban.
India’s real-money gaming industry has been thrown into turmoil after Parliament passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, which bans all money-based online games and prescribes penalties of up to Rs 1 crore and jail terms.
Mobile Premier League (MPL), one of the country’s biggest gaming platforms, said it was halting its real-money offerings. In a LinkedIn post, the company stated it “respects the rule of law and will comply fully” with the ban.
“Effective immediately, we are suspending all gaming offerings involving money on the MPL platform in India,” the company said. “Our foremost priority is our users. While new deposits will no longer be accepted, customers will be able to withdraw their balances seamlessly. However, online money games will not be available on the MPL platform anymore.”
MPL, which has more than 120 million registered users worldwide, is the first major platform to shut down after the legislation.
Rival Zupee also confirmed it would discontinue paid games. A spokesperson said, “Zupee remains fully operational and our players can continue to enjoy their favourite games on the platform. In line with the new Online Gaming Bill 2025, we are discontinuing paid games, but our hugely popular free titles like Ludo Supreme, Ludo Turbo, Snakes & Ladders, and Trump Card Mania will continue to be available for all users for free.”
“We remain committed to delivering fun, engaging, and responsible gaming & entertainment experiences to our 150+ million users across India for free,” the spokesperson added.
Meanwhile, Dream Sports has also stopped all ‘Pay to Play’ contests on Dream Picks, a recently launched fantasy sports app that let users build four-player teams and compete across both innings. The company is also suspending its casual RMG app, Dream Play. Both apps were launched by the fantasy sports major in recent months.
“In view of the recent development pertaining to “The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025″, we are pausing all ‘Pay to Play’ Fantasy Sports contests on our platform. Your account balance is safe and available for you to withdraw from the Dream11 app,” according to a notice on the app.
Parent company Dream Sports is expected to shift focus to other ventures such as FanCode, Sportz Drip, Cricbuzz, and Willow TV.
Bengaluru-based Gameskraft is also halting its ‘Add Cash’ and ‘Gameplay services’ on its rummy apps, that include RummyCulture. “The withdrawal services continue to remain available in accordance with platform policies. We want to reassure that the users funds continue to be safe with us. This is a precautionary measure to ensure full compliance with the evolving legal framework,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.
Another gaming company Probo has also discontinued its real-money gaming. A spokesperson said, “As unfortunate as it is, we respect the government of India’s latest Online Gaming bill. In light of this development, Probo has decided to discontinue its real-money gaming (RMG) operations with immediate effect until further notice. We remain steadfast in our vision to innovate and build information markets from India, for the world.”
The ban is set to disrupt lakhs of players while sparking widespread layoffs and an investment freeze across India’s gaming sector. The government, however, has signaled that esports and non-monetary skill-based games will be the future of the industry.
Parliament on August 21 passed The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, with the Rajya Sabha approving it without debate amid din.
The bill, piloted by Minister of Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw, seeks to ban all forms of online money games while promoting eSports and online social gaming.
It also seeks to prohibit advertisements related to online money games and bar banks and financial institutions from facilitating or transferring funds for any of such games.
Online money games are played by depositing money in expectation of winning monetary and other rewards.
A team of writers and reporters decodes vast terms of personal finance and making money matters simpler for you. From latest initial public offerings (IPOs) in the market to best investment options, we cover al…Read More
A team of writers and reporters decodes vast terms of personal finance and making money matters simpler for you. From latest initial public offerings (IPOs) in the market to best investment options, we cover al… Read More
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