'They advertised like crazy': Capitalmind CEO on why Centre cracked down on online gaming industry
Parliament passed The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025 on Thursday.
- Aug 21, 2025,
- Updated Aug 21, 2025 6:50 PM IST
Capitalmind AMC CEO Deepak Shenoy said on Thursday that the Centre's ban on online money games was triggered by aggressive advertising rather than the nature of the industry itself. "In my perhaps limited view, the ban on online gaming comes largely because they advertised like crazy. It is obvious that some people were addicted and were playing beyond their financial comfort levels. But addictions are only legal if they are not blatantly advertising themselves," he wrote on X.
Parliament on Thursday passed The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025. The bill, introduced by Minister of Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw, bans all forms of online money games while promoting eSports and online social gaming. It also prohibits advertisements and directs banks and financial institutions to block transactions related to such games.
Shenoy drew parallels with other sectors where advertising has been curbed. "Cigarettes and alcohol aren’t allowed to directly advertise. Even F&O, the recent money darling, has seen major clampdowns on public advertising - of returns, of the game itself," he noted.
He argued that the core problems in the industry were linked to regulation rather than the games themselves. "Gambling in general has to be fair, so payout ratios need to be published, more and more people should be winners and overplaying (say by PAN) should be restricted. These are gambling rules, not gaming, but most online money games know they are promoting gambling too," Shenoy wrote.
Still, he said the scale of promotion made the ban politically inevitable. "With strong advertising and the icky feeling that we are allowing the promotion of unregulated gambling, is probably what drives this move (and it is by and large unopposed-not just from the opposition but also general junta gets it)."
"A ban is tough for all incumbents, because they set up their businesses that way. But in that sense, they were a victim of their own growth. Growing silently has benefits, and advertising too much has political repercussions."
Shenoy acknowledged the risks of problem gaming but warned that prohibition could create unintended consequences. “I’m sure there are enough sad and unhappy stories of people addicted to this. But to a large set of people it was just a game, like a lottery. We could have chosen to regulate them, but it looks like a lot of foreign players were in it too hard and couldn’t be regulated perhaps? The ban is a hard-hitting approach, like banning lotteries, but I hope this doesn’t just push things underground instead."
Shenoy added a note of disclosure: "Consider me biased because I will partially benefit from an online gaming ban, as more people might choose stock markets instead when they don’t have the dopamine hit of an online money game."
Capitalmind AMC CEO Deepak Shenoy said on Thursday that the Centre's ban on online money games was triggered by aggressive advertising rather than the nature of the industry itself. "In my perhaps limited view, the ban on online gaming comes largely because they advertised like crazy. It is obvious that some people were addicted and were playing beyond their financial comfort levels. But addictions are only legal if they are not blatantly advertising themselves," he wrote on X.
Parliament on Thursday passed The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025. The bill, introduced by Minister of Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw, bans all forms of online money games while promoting eSports and online social gaming. It also prohibits advertisements and directs banks and financial institutions to block transactions related to such games.
Shenoy drew parallels with other sectors where advertising has been curbed. "Cigarettes and alcohol aren’t allowed to directly advertise. Even F&O, the recent money darling, has seen major clampdowns on public advertising - of returns, of the game itself," he noted.
He argued that the core problems in the industry were linked to regulation rather than the games themselves. "Gambling in general has to be fair, so payout ratios need to be published, more and more people should be winners and overplaying (say by PAN) should be restricted. These are gambling rules, not gaming, but most online money games know they are promoting gambling too," Shenoy wrote.
Still, he said the scale of promotion made the ban politically inevitable. "With strong advertising and the icky feeling that we are allowing the promotion of unregulated gambling, is probably what drives this move (and it is by and large unopposed-not just from the opposition but also general junta gets it)."
"A ban is tough for all incumbents, because they set up their businesses that way. But in that sense, they were a victim of their own growth. Growing silently has benefits, and advertising too much has political repercussions."
Shenoy acknowledged the risks of problem gaming but warned that prohibition could create unintended consequences. “I’m sure there are enough sad and unhappy stories of people addicted to this. But to a large set of people it was just a game, like a lottery. We could have chosen to regulate them, but it looks like a lot of foreign players were in it too hard and couldn’t be regulated perhaps? The ban is a hard-hitting approach, like banning lotteries, but I hope this doesn’t just push things underground instead."
Shenoy added a note of disclosure: "Consider me biased because I will partially benefit from an online gaming ban, as more people might choose stock markets instead when they don’t have the dopamine hit of an online money game."