Supreme Court to hear challenges to online gaming act, transfers cases from high courts

Supreme Court

The Supreme Court will hear challenges to the recently passed online gaming act after it allowed Centre's plea to transfer all such petitions from high courts to the top court on September 8.

The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, which imposes a blanket-ban on real-money games (RMG), faces three legal challenges, with petitions filed before the high courts of Karnataka, Delhi, and Madhya Pradesh.

A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and KV Vishwanathan directed high courts of Karnataka, Delhi, and Madhya Pradesh to transfer all the records within a week. Once the records are transferred, the matter will be listed for hearing before the Supreme Court.

Any fresh petitions too would stand transferred to the apex court, it said.

The petitioners, so far, are companies such as Head Digital Works, which operates the online rummy platform A23 Rummy, online carrom platform Bagheera Carrom and Clubboom11 Sports & Entertainment, which operates the online fantasy sports platform Boom11.

Clubboom11 Sports & Entertainment is a member of the Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS), an industry body for fantasy sports, with Dream11 as its founding member. Bagheera Carrom is a member of the E-Gaming Federation, which represents the country's top online rummy and poker operators such as Games24x7, Junglee Games, and Head Digital Works.

The Centre had on September 4 moved the Supreme Court seeking transfer of these petitions.

It was important that the petitions were transferred to the Supreme Court to avoid conflicting or multiple rulings on this matter, the government had said.

The new law prohibits online money games, where a user makes a deposit, directly or indirectly, with the expectation of earning winnings on that deposit.

After Parliament gave its nod to the bill on August 22, RMG companies suspended contests and games involving money on their platforms, though they continue to offer free-to-play options.

Several companies, including Dream11 parent Dream Sports, Gameskraft, Mobile Premier League (MPL), Zupee, and Pokerbaazi parent firm Moonshine Technology, have decided not to challenge the law.

These developments have also led to companies such as MPL, Pokerbaazi parent firm and Games24x7 significantly reducing their workforce.

In July, the top court reserved its judgment in a clutch of cases dealing with both GST levied on gaming companies as well as state-level legislation which sought to ban some real-money online games.

The apex court also has to adjudicate the validity of GST notices worth Rs 2.5 lakh crore issued to online RMG firms and casino companies, as well as challenges to laws introduced by Tamil Nadu and Karnataka that banned online games played for stakes.