While India’s real-money gaming apps grew massively and raked in a staggering ₹33,000 crore in yearly revenue, it created ripple effects in a place that no one saw coming. Data tabled in Parliament shows Indians lose ₹20,000 crore every single year on these apps. That’s money vanishing from household savings into digital slot machines!

The fallout is massive: 45 crore citizens are caught in this addiction spiral and an estimated 5 crore borrowers now juggling “bad debt” they never planned for. Think about it – an entire population the size of Spain navigating new debt obligations because “instant wealth creation” became more appealing than disciplined financial planning.

The impact on unsecured lending’s delinquency levels is real:

• Instant lending apps seeing early & late stages
• Credit card with high short-term utilisation
• Short-term personal loans
• Payday loans and cash advances
• Micro-finance loans in urban areas

This is precisely how big economies crumble: personal debt balloons > consumption shrinks > loan defaults spike > financial stress ripples through the system.

I applaud the Government of India for drawing a hard line with the 2025 Online Gaming Bill – protecting families over tax revenues takes real courage!

But the story doesn’t end with regulation. History shows that sustainable solutions require proactive financial system innovation alongside policy measures.

Action plan for Lenders & Fintechs

• Build cross-product monitoring systems to detect gaming-debt spirals.
• Proactive debt counselling products – catch stress signals before defaults cascade.
• Push financial literacy that redirects “get-rich-quick” energy into wealth-building discipline.

Let’s turn this crisis into an opportunity to build a financially resilient, innovation-driven Bharat. The world is watching, will we step up?