Across South Asia and the United States, the gambling industry is undergoing seismic shifts as governments, tech companies, and casino operators wrestle with the promises and pitfalls of betting’s digital revolution. In recent months, three stories—India’s sweeping ban on real-money online games, Sri Lanka’s bold casino push, and the U.S. prediction market boom—have underscored just how much is at stake for economies, regulators, and millions of players worldwide.
On August 24, 2025, India’s president signed into law the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill 2025, criminalizing real-money gaming platforms such as fantasy sports and poker apps. The law, passed by both houses of parliament just days earlier, prohibits the offering, promotion, and financing of online money games, with violators facing up to five years in prison. According to official data cited by Asia Gaming Brief, online gambling platforms had been extracting about $2.3 billion annually from nearly 450 million Indians—a staggering figure that made the sector both lucrative and controversial.
Government officials, including Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, pointed to widespread social harms—addiction, financial distress, and even suicides—as core motivations for the ban. “The harmful effects of online money games” were repeatedly cited as justification, with the government also noting the sector’s links to fraud, money laundering, and even terrorism financing. A government briefing highlighted that roughly one-third of India’s population had lost money to online gambling.
Yet the new law is not a blanket condemnation of all digital play. Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasized that the legislation aims to “encourage e-sports and online social games” as part of India’s digital economy, while drawing a sharp line against betting. E-sports, now defined as organized competitions governed by skill, are exempt—so long as there are no bets or wagers involved. “This is a big boon for e-sports by giving them legitimacy as a form of competitive sport in India,” said David Pinto, a finance consultant in Goa, to Asia Gaming Brief. He predicted the law would foster growth in non-monetary competitive gaming, aligning India with global trends treating e-sports as legitimate athletic pursuits.
The fallout for India’s gaming industry was immediate and severe. Shares in Nazara Technologies, a publicly listed company with a $117 million investment in the poker app Poker Baazi, plunged 18 percent in just two days. While real money gaming made up only 5.2 percent of Nazara’s revenue in fiscal year 2023—and was unprofitable—the company ceased reporting it as a separate segment after ongoing disputes over goods and services tax. Other major players, including Dream11, Gameskraft, and Mobile Premier League, are facing similar existential threats. Dream11, India’s largest fantasy sports platform and a prominent cricket team sponsor since July 2023, discontinued all cash games and contests after the bill’s passage. The Board of Control for Cricket in India, for its part, pledged to comply with government policy, with secretary Devajit Saikia stating, “If it’s not permissible, we’ll not do anything.”
Industry groups had lobbied for regulation and taxation rather than a total ban, warning that users would flock to illegal offshore sites. Pinto echoed this concern, telling Asia Gaming Brief that “it is likely that more traffic will go towards illegal websites,” a primary grievance for the legal gaming sector. Still, he acknowledged that the law might reduce youth exposure to gambling through endorsements and easy access. Looking ahead, Pinto speculated that India might eventually consider localized allowances for sports gaming in tourist hubs like Goa, drawing a parallel to Macau’s special status in China—but for now, prohibition appears set in stone.
While India clamps down, Sri Lanka is rolling the dice in the opposite direction. Marking nearly a year in office, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake—a self-described Marxist—has made casinos central to his strategy for economic recovery following the country’s 2022-2023 collapse. In Colombo, the capital, he recently inaugurated the $1.2 billion City of Dreams complex, South Asia’s first integrated resort, developed by John Keells Holdings and Macau’s Melco Resorts & Entertainment. The resort, which boasts 800 rooms, a luxury mall, and conference facilities, is designed to lure high-rollers from India and China, as reported by Reuters.
“Tourism plays a very significant role for us to get out of these economic issues that we have,” deputy tourism minister Ruwan Ranasinghe told Reuters. “So these couple of years we are working more on short-term targets and getting traffic, but in the long run, our plan is to go for quality, more sustainable, and high-end tourism and casinos and gambling will be a segment of that.” Sri Lanka aims to boost tourist arrivals by 50 percent to three million in 2025, with projected industry revenues climbing from $3.7 billion last year to $5 billion. Tourism accounted for about 4 percent of GDP in 2024, and the government hopes to raise that to 10 percent. Indians already make up nearly a quarter of Sri Lanka’s tourists, while Chinese visitors account for 7 percent.
To support this vision, Sri Lanka’s parliament recently passed legislation to create a Gambling Regulatory Authority. The law is meant to encourage responsible gambling and boost tax revenues, but it has drawn criticism from experts for granting broad powers to the finance minister, excluding state-run lotteries from oversight, and imposing low penalties for violations. The government, however, defends the move as a way to reduce social harm and create jobs. “With the arrival of City of Dreams – clientele from all over the world, I’m sure they will also come to Sri Lanka,” Ranasinghe said.
Meanwhile, in the United States, the gambling landscape is being redrawn by a new breed of prediction markets—apps like Kalshi, Robinhood, and Polymarket—that blur the lines between betting, trading, and speculation. These platforms, best known for allowing bets on everything from elections to celebrity news, are now expanding into sports betting, often outpacing traditional sportsbooks and sidestepping state-level regulations.
Kalshi, a New York–based exchange, has faced lawsuits and cease-and-desist orders from states including Nevada, New Jersey, and Maryland over its sports event contracts. The company argues that its offerings are “trades on sports outcomes, not bets,” and should be regulated federally rather than by individual states. In April 2025, federal judges ruled that Nevada and New Jersey could not halt Kalshi’s sports offerings while litigation is ongoing. However, a Maryland judge recently allowed the state to block Kalshi’s sports sections—though the company is appealing.
Despite legal skirmishes, Kalshi expanded its football markets in August 2025, letting users bet on player touchdowns and final scores. Robinhood, the financial platform famous for its role in the meme-stock craze, announced its own prediction contracts for professional and college football, supported by Kalshi’s infrastructure. Robinhood is currently suing Nevada and New Jersey over their objections, and both companies face legal challenges from Native American tribes concerned about lost sportsbook revenue. Polymarket, another major player, recently acquired a derivatives-trading platform with a U.S. license, signaling its intent to bring legal football trading to all 50 states.
This convergence of prediction markets, traditional sportsbooks, and crypto-based platforms is creating what Slate described as “disruption on steroids,” with federal and state regulators struggling to keep pace. As companies push the boundaries of what’s legal—and lucrative—across borders and platforms, the global gambling industry is entering a new era, one where fortunes and social risks are both on the table.
From India’s crackdown and Sri Lanka’s casino boom to America’s regulatory Wild West, the future of gambling is up for grabs—and the stakes, for governments, industries, and ordinary people, have never been higher.
