There will be enough job opportunities for people leaving online gaming industry: Govt sources

Sources in the government also noted that there would be enough jobs for those who leave this industry in ventures such as e-sports and online social games
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The government has estimated that around 45 crore people could lose close to ₹20,000 crore every year in online real money gaming, and the proposed ban was important to ensure people’s welfare even if it means losing substantial revenues.

Sources in the government also noted that there would be enough jobs for those who leave this industry in ventures such as e-sports and online social games.

“Those who say there will be unemployment because of this, I want to tell that the game makers/ software companies, they work for everybody – they work for e-sports, social games, money games…We have taken a conscious call to promote two segments – promote the two-third of the industry like e-sports and online social games, which is part of the creative economy, which is part of the WAVE (World Audio Visual & Entertainment Summit) as a vertical, which is part of the IACT (Institute for Advanced Computer Training) as a training institution – we are actively promoting that,” said the source.

Fresh opportunities

Those who have been working in the game making industry will find more opportunities in the remaining two-third of the industry, which the government is promoting, he said.

Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister of Electronics and IT tabled the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill 2025 in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, which proposes to promote e-sports and online social gaming while banning money gaming in any form.

The government source mentioned that in Parliament also, many questions had been repeatedly asked as to why the government had not banned such online games. And, on top of that, there were several public grievances expressed at various forums. Therefore, it was important to introduce this Bill, he added.

The official also noted that those who play money games are the victims of this and not the perpetrators, and victims should not be punished. “So they [victims] are not getting any impact from this, but those who are advertising for it or providing online money gaming service or getting into financial transactions related to online money gaming service, they all are strictly discouraged,” he said.

The source further said that engagement with the industry on the matter had been there for a while, and the government had reached the decision to ban after almost 3.5 years of deliberations.

“We tried multiple ways, we even told them to make a Self Regulatory Body (SRB), but the proposals came with a lot of conflict of interest. And, for SRB, you cannot have a conflict of interest. We even tried for GST…we have been asking the industry to remove the problem of addiction through multiple ways and come out with a transparent industry, but all those things have not really worked,” the official added.

Published on August 20, 2025