MeitY designated nodal ministry for online gaming

The Government of India amended the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules in December 2022 to formally designate the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) as the nodal ministry for matters relating to online gaming¹. The change moved federal responsibility for the sector to MeitY and marked the end of a period in which states set all the rules¹.

Until then, gambling regulation sat with individual states, because gambling is a State List subject under the Indian Constitution¹. The result was a patchwork. Nagaland passed the Prohibition of Gambling and Promotion and Regulation of Online Games of Skill Act in 2016, permitting skill-based games including chess, poker and fantasy sports and creating a licensing regime for operators¹. Sikkim developed the Sikkim Online Gaming (Regulation) Act in 2008, allowing online casino games and sports betting through a licensing framework¹. Goa kept its liberal approach to physical casinos under the Goa, Daman and Diu Public Gambling Act of 1976¹. Other states moved the other way: Tamil Nadu banned online games of chance including poker and rummy through a 2021 amendment that the Madras High Court struck down, then passed fresh legislation in 2022 that was again challenged in court¹. Odisha banned all forms of gaming for stakes, including skill-based games¹.

The designation followed a tax dispute that had begun three months earlier. In September 2022, tax authorities issued a notice to Bengaluru-based platform Gameskraft demanding INR 21K Cr for alleged GST evasion, arguing the company should have paid 28% on the full value of stakes placed by players rather than the lower rate on its platform commission alone¹. The Karnataka High Court quashed the notice, agreeing that platforms were technology intermediaries rather than gambling operators, and the Supreme Court stayed that order¹.

MeitY then released draft amendments to the IT Rules 2021 for public consultation on January 2, 2023, and notified the final amendments on April 6, 2023¹. The rules introduced definitions of online games and online real money games and created a self-regulatory body framework through which platforms could get their games verified as permissible¹.

What it means for players

The December 2022 change did not by itself ban or permit any game. It shifted which part of the central government handled online gaming, at a time when states still held the power to regulate gambling¹. For players in India, the practical position in late 2022 and early 2023 remained the one described above: whether a platform was legal could depend on which state you were in and which court had last ruled on that format¹. The same platform might be legal in one state, illegal in another and operating in a gray area in a third¹.

The MeitY rules that followed in April 2023 introduced central definitions and a verification framework for permissible games, along with due diligence obligations around user verification, responsible gaming disclosures and parental controls¹. They said almost nothing about taxation¹.

What happens next

Later events described in the same account changed the position substantially. In October 2023, the GST Council's decision to impose a 28% levy on the full face value of player deposits came into force¹. In August 2025, Parliament cleared the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, which received presidential assent on Aug 22, 2025, and prohibited real money gaming entirely, with operational rules in force from May 1, 2026¹. On May 27, 2026, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court ruled that the industry's core legal arguments had always been wrong¹.

For background on how Indian gambling rules are made and enforced, see Gambling Regulators and Licenses in Asia: Who Licenses What and How to Check. For the current position, see Can I Gamble in India?, What India's Online Gaming Ban Means for Players and Can I Play at Online Casinos in India?.