On a match night in Mumbai, Dhaka, or Lahore, the soundtrack of South Asian sport is unchanged: the hiss of street‑side chai, the commentary rising with every attack, the collective groan when a chance goes begging. What has changed is the glow in people’s hands. Smartphones now sit beside tea glasses, their screens filled with live scores, micro‑markets, and in‑play graphics.
Phones, floodlights, and a shifting landscape
The GSMA’s State of Mobile Internet Connectivity report estimates that approximately 42% of South Asia’s population was a mobile internet user in 2023, despite the region already having mobile broadband coverage. That leaves more than a billion people who are covered but not yet connected, a vast “usage gap” that operators and app developers are eager to close.
As connections spread, more fans experiment with interactive layers: fantasy contests, prediction games, and real-money wagers. Supporters in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Nepal navigate live-score dashboards, social feeds, and comparisons of betting sites that promise better odds, local-language support, or faster withdrawals. In 2026, however, the rules of that digital game will look very different from the relatively loose ecosystem of the early 2020s.
India’s new law and the end of legal real-money play
The most dramatic change is coming from India, whose market dominates regional numbers. Industry estimates place the value of India’s online gaming sector at approximately $4.38 bln in 2025, with approximately 488 million online gamers in 2024 and a projected 517 million by the end of 2025. That audience once powered a boom in fantasy sports, rummy, and other real-money titles that argued they were games of skill rather than gambling.
That era is closing. In August 2025, Parliament passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025 (PROGA), which bans real-money online gaming and prohibits related advertising and payment flows. Global operator Flutter Entertainment has already shut down money‑based games on its Junglee platform in response, warning that players may migrate to unregulated operators. The government, for its part, is planning a dedicated regulator to register online games and identify those that use real‑money stakes, which would be prohibited.
A constitutional challenge to the law is now before India’s Supreme Court, which has pushed detailed hearings to early 2026. While the judges deliberate, many domestic platforms are shifting toward free-to-play models, advertising, or overseas markets. For South Asian bettors, 2026 is likely to mean fewer locally licensed betting apps in India and a greater incentive to seek offshore alternatives.
Bangladesh: zero tolerance on tiny screens
If India is rewriting the law, Bangladesh is sharpening its enforcement tools. Gambling there remains broadly illegal under the colonial-era Public Gambling Act of 1867, and the Constitution instructs the state to prevent gambling on social-harm grounds. Yet for years, online betting quietly rode the same mobile‑money rails that millions use for remittances and everyday purchases.
That grey zone narrowed sharply in 2025 with the passage of the Cyber Security Ordinance 2025, which created new offences for organising or promoting online gambling and set penalties of up to two years’ imprisonment or significant fines. Days later, the Criminal Investigation Department launched a nationwide crackdown, identifying more than 1,000 mobile financial service agents and over 5,000 accounts allegedly linked to illegal gambling networks. Bangladesh Bank has since ordered mobile wallet providers to deploy AI‑based surveillance and block gambling‑related transactions. At the same time, the government has declared a zero‑tolerance policy on online gambling and associated advertising.
For mobile bettors, this means that 2026 will bring more payment blocks, more frozen balances, and greater pressure on informal agents. The risk is that enforcement drives users toward increasingly opaque channels, such as encrypted messaging apps, informal cash hubs, and offshore wallets beyond Dhaka’s regulatory reach.
Pakistan and its inherited prohibitions
Across the western border, Pakistan’s legal framework is older but no less restrictive. Gambling is banned under the Prevention of Gambling Act 1977, which adapts the British‑era Public Gambling Act of 1867 to the Pakistani context. Under the Act, those found running gambling facilities can face up to one year in prison or a fine, while people caught gambling in a “common gaming house” can be fined up to 5,000 rupees and jailed for up to a year.
On paper, the penalties are modest, but combined with cultural and religious disapproval, they have kept most major operators at bay. Mobile betting in Pakistan thus tends to operate underground, via side‑loaded apps and local intermediaries who mirror odds from international bookmakers. In 2026, observers expect increased attention from cybercrime units and financial intelligence teams, particularly as the country seeks to demonstrate compliance with anti-money-laundering standards.
A region between regulation and reality
Taken together, these strands point to a paradox. South Asia is one of the most mobile‑first regions on Earth: GSMA figures indicate that mobile internet use is increasing annually, narrowing the gap between coverage and adoption. At the same time, some of its largest markets are moving toward stricter regulations on real‑money play. India’s PROGA, Bangladesh’s cyber‑security law, and provincial bills in places like Karnataka are all designed to shut down what lawmakers see as a wave of addiction, fraud, and suicide linked to online betting.
Yet demand does not vanish when an app disappears from an official store. Reports from Indian states that have already banned online betting indicate that underground apps are thriving via APK files shared on Telegram, WhatsApp, and piracy sites, often with far weaker consumer protections and greater cybersecurity risks. If the experience of the 2020s is a guide, 2026 will not end mobile betting in South Asia; it will simply shift more of it out of sight.
International operators and the future of “regulated” choice
Amid this turbulence, international brands are trying to position themselves as comparatively safer harbours. For South Asian users who choose to bet, the question in 2026 will not only be whether they can circumvent national blocks, but also which operators offer genuine safeguards: clear age checks, spending limits, fast withdrawals, and transparent dispute processes. Guides that walk readers through melbet app download increasingly highlight responsible-gaming tools as much as bonus codes, reminding users that a small stake should sit inside a leisure budget, not replace it.
Ultimately, mobile betting in South Asia is likely to become less visible but more pervasive: embedded in encrypted chats, hidden behind VPNs, and integrated into a handful of large international platforms. The region’s regulators face a tricky balancing act in 2026: curbing the harms that have already made headlines without driving millions of football, cricket, and kabaddi fans into the darkest corners of the digital stadium.
For more, visit Pure Magazine
