India’s Supreme Court to hear challenge to Online Gaming Act in January 2026 as operators warn of shutdowns

India’s Supreme Court will hear a batch of petitions against the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act 2025 in January 2026, after real-money gaming operators including A23 Rummy warned that the new law has brought business to a standstill and triggered job losses.

India’s Supreme Court has agreed to take up a crucial set of petitions challenging the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act (PROGA) 2025, which imposes a blanket ban on real-money online games. On 11 December, a three-judge bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant said the matter would be listed in January 2026, following an urgent plea by Head Digital Works, the operator of A23 Rummy.

Senior advocates C. Aryama Sundaram and Arvind Datar, appearing for Head Digital Works and other petitioners, told the court that businesses had effectively come to a halt after PROGA received presidential assent on 22 August 2025, with platforms suspending money games and hundreds of employees already losing their jobs. They also noted that earlier hearings before a different bench had stalled, leaving operators without clarity as the law moved closer to implementation.

PROGA is India’s first central law to ban online “money games”, prohibiting any real-money games of chance or skill, along with related advertising, sponsorship and financial transactions. The government has defended the Act as a necessary response to fraud, addiction, money laundering and even alleged links to terror financing, while operators argue that the blanket ban violates constitutional rights to trade and unfairly targets skill-based formats such as rummy and fantasy sports.

All constitutional challenges to PROGA that were previously pending before the Delhi, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh High Courts have already been transferred to the Supreme Court, concentrating the fight over the future of India’s real-money gaming sector in a single forum. Industry stakeholders will now be watching the January hearings closely, as any interim relief or final ruling will have direct consequences for operators, investors and millions of players affected by the nationwide ban.