Centre to rope in Interpol, CERT-In to enforce new gaming ban

The Centre has made it clear that compliance with the newly enacted Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 will be enforced strictly, with measures extending beyond India’s borders.

The government said it would not hesitate to invoke international processes, including roping in Interpol, to bring offshore operators of money-gaming platforms under jurisdiction and shut down their services.

“There is a process of Interpol (International Criminal Police Organisation), and there is a process in which they can be brought to jurisdiction,” S. Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), told businessline on the sidelines of an event.

Krishnan underlined that enforcement would rely on India’s technical and cyber-security infrastructure as well. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), which functions under MeitY, will be tasked with blocking or disabling apps that continue to provide banned money-gaming services in India. “Like any other technical issue, CERT-In can come and play its role to shut down those apps under the IT Act,” he said.

The government also dismissed the idea that circumvention via Virtual Private Network (VPN) would make the ban ineffective. “Without VPN issue also, we will find a way (to control them)… it’s a technology issue so we have to,” Krishnan added.

The compliance-heavy approach follows what the Centre described as the repeated failure of self-regulation in the gaming industry. According to the government, industry stakeholders themselves admitted that self-regulatory bodies were inadequate and lacked credibility. This led to the decision to institute a legal ban on all real-money games, while carving out space for e-sports and social gaming.

The Act, which received Presidential assent on Friday after being cleared by both Houses of Parliament, prohibits all forms of money-based gaming but simultaneously promotes e-sports and online social games.

The government defended the move as necessary to curb mounting social and public health costs. “Instances of suicides, deep family distress, and financial ruin underscore the magnitude of the social harm,” Krishnan said, noting that while a few thousand jobs are linked to money-gaming platforms, crores of individuals and households are adversely affected by addiction. “Society must consider whether protecting a few thousand jobs outweighs the harm inflicted on millions of households,” he added.

By coupling international cooperation with technical shutdowns, the government is signalling that compliance with the new law will not be optional—even for offshore operators.

Published on August 23, 2025