Online gaming bill: 5 apps banned in 2025 for promoting gambling activities

Parliament has passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025 on August 21. The new bill, passed by both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha places a blanket ban on real-money games online. It is designed to curb addiction, financial ruin and social distress caused by predatory gaming platforms that thrive on misleading promises of quick wealth. In 2025 alone, the government has banned multiple betting apps. Majority of these apps banned have allegedly been responsible for promoting unauthorized gambling activities on their platforms. Here’s a look at apps banned in India in 2025Other than these 5 apps, the central government banned around 174 betting and gaming apps in December 2023. Some of the apps on the banned list then were Mahadev, Parimatch, Fairplay, 1XBET, Lotus365, Dafabet, and Betwaysatta. Most companies have confirmed that players’ funds are secure. MPL, Games24x7 (operator of My11Circle), PokerBaazi, and Zupee said withdrawals can be made smoothly, even though fresh deposits are blocked. WinZO said it will remove affected offerings from August 22, while Probo has already discontinued all money-related formats.