Statsguru: The rise and sudden fall of real-money gaming in India

Parliament recently passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, which seeks to promote segments like esports and social online games but enforces a blanket ban on real-money games (RMG) in India. 

RMG refers to online games where players wager real money and stand to win cash prizes. These include online poker, rummy, fantasy sports, esports, and others. The other formats focus on entertainment, skill, or virtual prizes. 

The RMG ban has triggered sharp opposition from the sector, with several major companies preparing legal challenges. The impact is significant: India has nearly 490 million online gamers, and an estimated ₹10,000 crore is spent every month on online gaming transactions via Unified Payments Interface (UPI). 

Of the 10,026 RMG firms globally, India has the largest share (19 per cent), followed by the United States (15 per cent) and the United Kingdom (5 per cent). 

 

Sharp fluctuations have been seen in registrations of RMG firms — rising from 36 in 2015 to 259 in 2020, then dropping to 190 in 2022 before climbing again to 438 in 2024. India’s share of global funding in this sector rose from 0.05 per cent in 2015 to a peak of 20.6 per cent in 2021 but later fell to 5.6 per cent in 2024. 

 

Metro cities, especially Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai, have the highest concentration of RMG firms. 

 

In terms of revenue distribution, rummy and poker lead, followed by fantasy sports. 

 

At the company level, revenues have surged. For instance, revenues of Dream Sports grew from ₹2,709 crore in FY21 to ₹6,580 crore in FY23, while those of Games24x7 rose from ₹1,562 crore to ₹2,023 crore during the same period. 

 

However, despite their rapid growth, the range of tax burden on the top-five RMG companies is quite wide – from 1 per cent to 12 per cent of their overall expenditure, according to the latest figures.