In 2023, the Tamil Nadu Government, with an aim of curbing the online gaming addiction and safeguarding the interest of the online real money game players, enacted the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Online Gambling and Regulation of Online Games Act, 2022 (“TN Online Gaming Act”). Exercising the powers conferred thereunder, the Tamil Nadu Online Gaming Authority (“TNOGA”), on 12th February 2025, has notified the Tamil Nadu Online Gaming Authority (Real Money Games) Regulations, 2025 (“Regulations”) in order to regulate the online real money games and to ensure protection on the users of such online real money games.

As per the Regulations, an ‘online real money game’ is an online game where a user makes a deposit in cash or kind, with the expectation of earning winnings on that deposit, which aligns with the definition provided under the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Cose) Rules, 2021. To regulate the playing time, addiction levels and amount of money involved, the Regulations introduces time limits, monetary limits and certain other requirements. The key highlights are as follows:


  1. Age Restriction: The Regulations prohibit all minors under the age of 18 years from playing online real money games.
  2. KYC Verification of the players: KYC verification through AADHAAR along with 2-factor authentication by way of OTP to the phone number of the player has been made mandatory for creating an account to play any online real money games. The obligation to ensure this requirement is on the online real money game providers.
  3. Limit on Monetary Spending: All online real money game provider shall implement a daily, weekly and monthly monetary spending limit for all players and are also required to notify the player in bold letters via a pop-up message whenever money is deposited, providing details of the fixed monetary limit and amount spent.
  4. Time Limits: The Regulations also mandate blank hours from 12 AM to 5 AM where no user can login to the game during these hours.
  5. Caution Messages: The online real game provider shall display pop-up caution messages for every 30 mins indicating the amount of time they have been playing and a caution message shall also be displayed on the login page continuously stating the addictive nature of the online real money games.


However, it is pertinent to note that the Regulations might face challenges in its the enforcement as the users may bypass login restrictions, as well as jurisdictional enforcement. With the Regulations coming into force, it remains to be seen how the implementation will unfold.