A few days ago, the Indian Parliament passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, which bans all forms of real money gaming (RMG)—including games involving stakes, betting, or gambling—whether based on skill or chance.
This will have severe impact on major companies in this space like Dream11, MPL, and PokerBaazi. The sector had attracted considerable venture capital. It is possible they will have to take writedowns.
As per LLM search, there are close to 50 funds that have invested in RMG companies. Some, like Tiger Global, have put in huge money.
Our view on this ban is this: Guys, you should have seen it coming. RMG games is gambling, no matter what spin you try to give. Investing in such companies was flirting with danger. While some of these funds are not signatories to UN PRI (the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment), many are. RMG sector should ideally be in the negative screening list if a fund was truly following Responsible Investing philosophy. Even if you are not a signatory to UN PRI, investing in a sector that can be banned is not good discharge of fiduciary duty to your LPs.
(from websearch, errors if any are inadvertent)