India: Sport

The surge in the use of skill - and non-skill-based games is accelerating globally, particularly with the rise of online betting platforms claiming to be skill-based, which is blurring the differentiation between the two.

“You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.” 1 The Eagles’ celebrated lyrics from the song Hotel California captures, with uncanny precision, the dilemma confronting professional athletes who wish to compete at the highest level of organised sports. The mandatory arbitration clause, often hidden in entry forms and federation regulations, presents athletes with a proverbial Hobson’s choice: accept the compulsory jurisdiction of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (‘CAS’), or sacrifice a professional career altogether.

The regulatory framework governing gaming in India has long been marked by regulatory uncertainty characterised by inconsistent state legislation and evolving jurisprudence. Historically, Indian gaming jurisprudence drew a sharp distinction between games of skill and games of chance, with Courts repeatedly holding that skill-dominant games such as rummy and certain formats of poker could not be equated with gambling, thereby granting them constitutional protection under Article 19(1)(g).

On April 22, 2026, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (“MeitY”) notified the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 (“PROGA”) and its underlying rules (“PROGA Rules”), constituted the Online Gaming Authority of India (“Gaming Authority”) and granted powers of investigation to the cyber cell officers to investigate offences under PROGA.

On 22 April 2026, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology notified the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Rules, 2026 (Gaming Rules), under the Promotion...

With the rise in the monetary business in the sports Industry, it has become an event of profit-making, entertainment, and several legal battles.

In their piece, the authors examine whether a mere change in the mode of playing a game (online vs. offline) should alter the nature and taxability of income under the Income-tax Act, 1961.

India's online gaming industry has experienced remarkable growth, evolving into a multi-billion-dollar sector, with an estimated valuation exceeding $3.5 billion by the year 2025, propelled by extensive smartphone adoption...

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has, on 2 October 2025, released the Draft Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Rules 2025 (Draft Rules) and invited comments from public stakeholders.