Key Points
- MeitY confirmed to the Central Information Commission that OGAI had registered zero online games as of 1 September 2026, four months after the law took effect on 1 May.
- The Enforcement Directorate named EaseMyTrip co-founder Nishant Pitti in a Mahadev betting chargesheet filed on 10 September, alleging betting proceeds entered India’s stock market through foreign portfolio investment structures.
- ASCI’s FY26 monitoring found offshore betting advertisements averaged 795 per month in the four months after PROGA was passed in August 2025, up from 594 per month in the preceding eight months, a trend that was already established before the law came into force in May 2026.
India’s online gaming regulator has been live for four months. No online game has been granted registration by the Online Gaming Authority of India as of 1 September 2026, while 201 complaints related to online gaming had been received by the same date, as MeitY confirmed to the Central Information Commission. A complaint inbox receiving signals and a registration column sitting blank at the same time: that is not how a functioning regulatory framework is supposed to look four months in.
Zero Registrations, 201 Complaints: What MeitY Told the CIC
The disclosure came through an RTI application, not a government press conference. The information was provided in response to a request seeking details of online games permitted to operate, complaints received regarding online games, and action taken against fake online games. The ministry’s response also revealed prior confusion. MeitY had initially told the applicant that amendments to the Information Technology Rules, notified in April 2023, provided a regulatory framework for intermediaries including online gaming platforms; however, the provisions relating to online gaming under those rules remained unenforceable after the new framework came into effect.
The RTI applicant challenged this response as incomplete and misleading. The First Appellate Authority upheld the ministry’s reply. CIC Information Commissioner P R Ramesh stated that the RTI Act requires authorities to provide information available on record, and does not require a public information officer to create information, draw inferences, or provide explanations.
A Regulator Active, But With a Portal That Does Not Exist Yet
OGAI is not dormant. By 29 July, it had issued a formal advisory directed at app stores, cloud service providers, telecom and internet service providers, banks, social media intermediaries, OTT platforms, and advertising agencies, directing them to stop enabling online money games. Yet even as the advisory pressed intermediaries to comply, determination notices were being sent to gaming companies while the OGAI submission portal remained non-operational, leaving firms with notices to answer but no functioning channel to file responses or registration applications through. That gap had persisted for months before the September disclosure.
Registration under the framework is not universal. It is mandatory only for games seeking recognition as esports, or for specific social categories notified by the central government based on risk, scale, and origin. Online money games are prohibited outright and ineligible to register at all. The verified figure of zero registrations as of 1 September 2026 reflects the state of the esports and notified social gaming pipeline specifically, and that pipeline has produced nothing yet.
The Constitutional Cloud Hanging Over the Framework
Part of the industry’s reluctance to engage the registration process connects directly to the Supreme Court. A three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana directed all parties to complete their pleadings before the matter proceeds to final hearing. Industry petitioners, including Head Digital Works, operator of A23 Rummy, argue that PROGA amounts to a “civil death” for the online gaming sector, claiming the blanket ban violates Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to pursue a lawful trade or business. Registering under a law whose constitutional validity is pending before the apex court is a calculated risk, and most operators appear to be watching that proceeding before committing.
Enforcement Carries On Under Older Laws
The absence of OGAI registrations has not stopped enforcement elsewhere. On 18 September 2026, Delhi Police’s Special Cell registered an FIR against Real11 Fantasy Sports LLP following a complaint alleging cyber and financial fraud. The complainant alleged depositing around 1.39 crore rupees while only being permitted to withdraw around 26 lakh rupees before account access was blocked. The case is being investigated under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Information Technology Act, and the Delhi Public Gambling Act; it is not a direct action under the new central gaming law. The allegations remain subject to investigation.
State-level enforcement has also moved faster than the central registration framework. The Bihar Gambling (Prohibition) Act, 2026, notified on 13 August, repeals the 159-year-old Public Gambling Act and bans all gambling, both offline and online, without exempting games of skill, making Bihar the first state to notify a fresh anti-gambling law after the centre’s PROG Act came into effect. Section 18 of the PROG Act states its overriding effect over other laws, while Bihar’s Section 17 claims overriding effect only over other state laws. Two laws now cover the same conduct in Bihar, pointing in slightly different directions, and that jurisdictional overlap has not been tested in court yet.
The Mahadev Case Pulls In a Prominent Name
The Enforcement Directorate’s investigation into the Mahadev online betting app reached a significant stage on 10 September. The ED named EaseMyTrip co-founder Nishant Pitti in its fifth supplementary charge sheet in the Mahadev money laundering case, alleging he facilitated the entry of betting proceeds into India’s equity market under the guise of foreign portfolio investments, and provisionally attached his DEMAT shares worth 59.60 crore rupees under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The Mahadev app is alleged to have generated proceeds of crime worth 80,000 crore rupees since 2019, with its two primary promoters, Sourabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal, both absconding under Interpol Red Notices.
Pitti denied all allegations, stating that his transactions comply with applicable laws and that his assets were obtained through lawful income and formal banking channels. EaseMyTrip said it had not received formal intimation of proceedings. These proceedings continue under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, entirely separate from PROGA.
The Offshore Ad Numbers That Demand Attention
While there were regulations barring any advertisement of online money games through online gaming rules, ASCI discovered that offshore betting operators advertised on average 795 times per month in the four months after the passage of PROGA in August 2025, compared to 594 times per month for eight months before the enactment of the law. In total, ASCI identified 7,927 cases of offshore betting advertisements from January to December 2025, out of which 6,933 cases were observed between April and December 2025. These statistics show the advertising atmosphere both before and immediately after the passage of the law but before the implementation of the law in May 2026. Offshore betting was on top of the violations list by ASCI for FY 2025-2026, comprising 72.14 per cent of violative advertisements observed in the year.
Expert Analysis
We think the most revealing detail in this entire picture is not the zero registration figure; it is the gap between what OGAI can send out and what operators can respond to. A portal that issues determination notices but cannot yet receive applications is, plainly, a regulator running on one engine. That is not a criticism of intent; it is an observation about sequencing. The law went live on 1 May. The compliance infrastructure for the other side of that transaction was not ready alongside it.
What makes this more than a procedural footnote is the Supreme Court dimension. Operators sitting on registration decisions while a constitutional challenge is pending are not being obstructive; any legal team would advise the same caution. The result is a deadlock that neither side designed but both are living with. OGAI issues advisories. The industry receives them through a portal that still does not fully function. Complaints arrive and are counted. Registrations do not.
The ASCI advertising data adds a layer we find worth examining honestly. The offshore betting volume that rose after PROGA was passed in August 2025 suggests the law’s passage itself, before commencement, shifted the advertising environment in a direction regulators had not intended. A framework that prohibits domestic real-money gaming while offshore operators face no equivalent registration requirement, and continue advertising at scale through influencers and social media, creates a structural gap. The 201 complaints logged by a regulator whose registration portal remains incomplete suggest the public is engaging with a system that is not yet fully built to engage back.
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