India’s ban on real-money gaming (RMG) has stirred a major storm in the business world! Since August, gaming giants and payment companies are feeling the heat with heavy financial losses. Big names like Flutter Entertainment and Clairvest Group have taken massive write-offs, seriously hurting their earnings. Flutter Entertainment, a US-based company, faced a whopping $556 million impairment this quarter. This happened after its Indian arm, Junglee Games, stopped cash-based rummy. Clairvest Group from Canada also wrote off its investment in Head Digital Works, which runs A23 Rummy, saying, “This development has made it illegal for Head Digital to conduct its business.” Indian players are not far behind. Nazara Technologies slashed ₹914.7 crore off its books due to newer RMG rules affecting its PokerBaazi parent company. Nazara’s CEO, Nitish Mittersain, explained that these were necessary based on fair valuation rules. Delta Corp also took a big hit, writing down ₹378.3 crore in three of its gaming investments as those firms stopped earning revenue. The shockwaves hit payments firms too! Paytm saw its net profit fall by 98%, booking ₹190 crore impairment on its loan to First Games Technology. Mobikwik’s loss jumped eight times to ₹28.6 crore as gaming-related transactions dropped. Yet, one payments executive shared optimism: “The decline in payment flows due to the RMG ban is temporary... firms can recover even if volumes fall 10-15% month-on-month.” However, smaller firms heavily tied to gaming might struggle longer. Many gaming companies are fighting back or fleeing. Hike closed its RMG app Rush, WinZo stopped Indian RMG operations to expand in the US, and MPL halted cash gaming in India. MPL’s founder Sai Srinivas told employees that half of the group’s revenue disappeared overnight because of the new law! NCPI data reveals that Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions in gaming dropped sharply from 351 million in July to 270 million in August after the ban. This shows how deeply RMG’s shutdown has hit both gaming and payment ecosystems. The coming quarters will reveal more pain as companies with poker, rummy, and fantasy sports exposure report similar impairments. The real-money gaming ban is not just a law, but a thunderous financial earthquake shaking India’s gaming industry to the core!