India’s Real-Money Gaming Ban Drives Players to Unregulated Offshore Platforms

India’s nationwide ban on domestic real-money gaming has not reduced the volume of money-based play. It has redirected it. A new multi-state report from CUTS International, based on a survey of 3,000 former users across Delhi NCR, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, finds that the Prohibition and Regulation of Online Gaming Act (PROGA), enacted in August 2025, has driven a large-scale migration to offshore platforms that sit entirely outside India’s regulatory and consumer-protection framework.

From Domestic to Offshore: The Numbers

Across the consolidated sample, offshore platform usage rose from 67.6% before the ban to 85.6% after PROGA came into force an 18 percentage-point increase. The state-level data is starker. Offshore participation reached 82% in Delhi NCR, 83% in Tamil Nadu and 92% in Maharashtra, compared to lower pre-ban baselines in each region. Maharashtra recorded the sharpest absolute shift, up 25 percentage points.

The intensity of play has followed the migration. Before the ban, daily use of offshore platforms hovered at 2–3% of respondents. Post-ban, that figure has crossed 40%. Sessions lasting more than two hours, previously found in fewer than 4% of offshore users, now account for more than 40% of sessions. High-spending brackets — those reporting monthly outlay of ₹25,000 or more — have expanded sharply on foreign platforms, spending categories that were previously concentrated in the regulated domestic market.

“The consolidated findings across Delhi NCR, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra suggest that the prohibition has not resulted in a widespread exit from money-based online gaming. Instead, the evidence points to a clear behavioural reallocation toward offshore betting platforms that operate outside India’s regulatory oversight. What is particularly notable is that the intensity of engagement — including spending levels, session duration, and frequency of play — appears to have migrated alongside users.” — Amol Kulkarni, Director of Research, CUTS International

Why Users Moved — and How Easily

Qualitative interviews conducted as part of the study describe the migration as substitution rather than transformation. Users reported moving offshore to continue familiar habits after domestic platforms shut down to comply with the law. Discovering foreign alternatives was straightforward: respondents cited Telegram and WhatsApp as primary discovery channels. Crucially, mainstream Indian payment infrastructure — including UPI — remained usable to fund offshore accounts, allowing transactions to flow to foreign operators despite the domestic prohibition.

More than 7,800 betting and gambling websites have been blocked by Indian authorities since enforcement began, yet offshore platforms continue to operate through mirror domains and alternative URLs that re-emerge rapidly after takedowns. The practical barriers to continued play, the CUTS data suggests, remained low throughout.

This mirrors the trajectory documented after India’s earlier December CUTS survey of Delhi NCR users, which recorded a 20% relative rise in offshore participation following the initial ban — the new multi-state study confirms and broadens that finding across three major jurisdictions.

Younger and Lower-Income Users Most Exposed

CUTS International’s analysis identifies the 18–24 age group as the fastest-growing cohort in offshore spending across multiple value brackets. The 25–34 age group accounts for the largest absolute volume of offshore migration. Lower-income users, previously concentrated in minimal offshore spending, now appear in higher offshore spending tiers in some states. Both groups are accessing platforms that carry none of the consumer-protection obligations that applied to domestic operators: no grievance redressal, no responsible gaming requirements, no dispute resolution mechanisms.

The economic cost to the licensed domestic industry is also significant. Head Digital Works, operator of the A23 platform, has seen its workforce fall from 606 to 178. Moonshine Technology, parent of PokerBaazi, laid off more than 200 staff. Investors including Clairvest and Nazara Technologies have written down their stakes. The capital and the players have moved offshore simultaneously, while regulated Indian operators have exited the market.

The Case for Regulation Over Prohibition

The CUTS report stops short of recommending the ban’s reversal, but its findings make the case for a structural rethink. In digitally open markets, the report notes, prohibitive regulation without parallel legal alternatives redirects behaviour rather than suppresses it. Blocking measures have a documented ceiling: VPNs, mirror domains and crypto payment rails allow sustained access regardless of enforcement volume.

Kulkarni has called for a shift from prohibition toward a framework that brings gaming activity into regulatory oversight, with consumer-protection safeguards applied at the point of use. The alternative — the current situation — is a growing offshore market operating beyond India’s tax, banking and regulatory systems, with no visibility into player harm and no recourse for users who encounter fraud or disputes.

India’s Economic Survey 2026 cited the real-money gaming ban as a measure to curb digital addiction. The CUTS multi-state data offers a different reading: the ban has not curbed addiction risk, it has moved it to jurisdictions where no one is watching. The regulatory debate is unlikely to close soon, with the government yet to signal any willingness to revisit PROGA.

Source: CUTS International / Outlook Business