By Ummul Idris
The Indian parliament has passed a bill to ban online games involving money, an official said on Thursday.
The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill 2025 prohibits online money gaming services, advertisements and financial transactions related to them.
The bill was passed on Thursday in the upper house of the Indian parliament without debate.
The lower house of the Indian parliament had passed the bill on Wednesday.
The bill also seeks to prohibit advertisements related to online money games and bar banks and other financial institutions from facilitating or transferring funds for any of such games.
Analysts say people indulge in playing online money games by depositing money in the expectation of earning higher returns.
The legislation seeks to make online money gaming punishable by imprisonment of up to three years and/or a fine of up to 10 million Indian rupees (114,600 U.S. dollars).
“The money-gaming addiction is like drug addiction. The powerful people behind online money games will challenge the decision in the courts.
“They will run social media campaigns against this ban.
“We have seen the impact of the games,” India’s Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said while tabling the bill in the upper house.
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