Offshore casinos in India and the licences behind them

What an offshore licence means in India

None of these licences counts under Indian law. The Online Gaming Act of 2025 applies to an online money gaming service operated from outside India just as it does to one run at home, and it bars anyone from offering such a service. A foreign licence number in a site's footer changes nothing about that.

Before the Act, the debate turned on the Public Gambling Act, 1867, a colonial law about gaming houses written long before the internet. The 2025 Act settles the question for online money games at the national level and overrides any other law that conflicts with it.

Who issues the licences

Blocking and payments

The Centre can block any online money gaming service that offers, advertises or takes payments in breach of the Act. Banks and payment firms are forbidden to move money towards such a service, and a breach can bring up to 3 years in prison or a fine of up to ₹1 crore.

Blocking began well before the ban took effect on 1 May 2026. In August 2025 the government put the number of betting and gambling websites and mobile apps blocked between 2022 and June 2025 at 1,524. Earlier, in March 2025, the Directorate General of GST Intelligence had reported blocking 357 websites of offshore online money gaming firms.

The risks of playing on an offshore site

• Complaints. An offshore casino answers to its foreign licence alone, so an Indian body cannot order it to settle a dispute. In Anjouan, player complaints go to the operator and, after 30 days, to an independent dispute service, and a player from a country the operator excludes falls outside that process. Kahnawà:ke takes complaints about its permit holders by email or web form.
• Withheld winnings and frozen accounts. Anjouan gives a player 30 days to raise a dispute over a payment or a suspended account with the operator, and 14 days for a dispute over a game result. The 2025 Act has no procedure for a player to get money back from such a site.
• Identity checks before a payout. Under Kahnawà:ke's regulations an operator pays out a balance after it has verified who the player is, so a withdrawal can sit waiting on those checks.
• Tax. Under the Income-tax Act, 2025, in force since April 2026, net winnings from any online game are taxed at 30 per cent.

If a dispute arises

The first step is always a written complaint to the site itself; both Anjouan and Kahnawà:ke refuse cases that skip it. Anjouan expects it through the complaint function behind the operator's licence seal, in English. Kahnawà:ke's form asks for the site's name, the member number and the date of the problem, and the Commission warns that airing a complaint on a public forum or in the media can end its help. Kahnawà:ke operators must let players see at least one month of account history, deposits and withdrawals included, which is the record a complaint rests on.

Questions

Are offshore casinos legal in India?

No offshore casino is legal to offer in India. The 2025 Act bans the offering of online money games from inside or outside the country, whatever licence a site holds abroad.

Can I complain to an Indian regulator about an offshore casino?

No Indian regulator licenses these sites, so a complaint goes to the site and then to its foreign regulator, under that regulator's own rules.

Sources

• Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, MeitY text
• PIB, blocked betting and gambling websites, August 2025 and DGGI blocking, March 2025
• Income-tax Act, 2025, section 194(1)
• Anjouan Gaming: player complaint process
• Kahnawà:ke Gaming Commission: dispute resolution
• Kahnawà:ke Gaming Commission, Regulations concerning Interactive Gaming, March 2026, sections 252 and 339