Key takeaways
- Prioritize policy engagement to avoid risks that could cripple entire industries, warns E-Gaming Federation CEO.
- Recognize that regulation poses greater threats than technology or market dynamics in the AI sector.
- Embed trust and ethical frameworks in AI systems from the outset to prevent future repercussions.
- Acknowledge the mismatch between rapid innovation and slow-moving regulation to remain competitive.
- Learn from gaming industry failures to enforce safeguards and build resilience against restrictive policies.
Anuraag Saxena, CEO of E-Gaming Federation, issued a sharp warning to India’s AI community at Cypher 2025. He urged companies to embed trust and engage policymakers early or risk the same fate as the recently banned real money gaming (RMG) sector.
Saxena argued that regulation, not sales or technology, poses the biggest threat to industries. He recalled how sudden policy moves have wiped out entire sectors: the coal block cancellations in 2014, the crypto ban in 2018, and the abrupt shutdown of the ₹20,000-crore online money games industry this year that employed two lakh people.
“Regulation is the biggest risk on your alphas,” he said, warning that firms with five or 5,000 employees could be destroyed overnight if they ignore policy engagement.
The Cost of Ignoring Policy
Saxena noted that the tech narrative usually revolves around investors, products, and consumers. Leaving policy out of the equation, he said, leaves companies vulnerable. He pointed to Meta, which had to hire former UK deputy prime minister Nick Clegg to lead its policy function after facing global backlash. “Repair is always more expensive than prevention,” he said.
Policy and innovation also move at different speeds, Saxena observed. “Companies are on skates; governments are ships.” This mismatch, he explained, means regulation can swing between enabling innovation or destroying it.
He added that restrictive policies often arise from genuine concerns around safety, privacy, social order, or consumer protection. Drawing from gaming’s failures, he said only a few operators enforced strong KYC, geofencing, and age checks. The rest ignored safeguards, resulting in prohibition, lost jobs, and vanished capital.
Trust from Day Zero
Saxena urged the AI sector to embed trust from “day zero” and design systems that operate within ethical and legal frameworks. He called on companies to secure “a seat at the table” as laws are drafted. “Realism and empathy are required to understand policymakers’ constraints, distractions, and knowledge gaps,” he said.
He outlined three hooks for building government partnerships: user safety, economic value, and national pride—“putting India on the map.” Without sustained engagement, he warned, Indian innovators would lack the fuel available to global peers and remain vulnerable to sudden regulatory shocks.
A Collective Responsibility
Saxena pressed the community to act together and rethink its approach. “Trust is the only currency... you need to earn it.” He challenged the audience to build trust frameworks that not only meet regulatory standards but also turn regulation into a driver of innovation.
India, he said, has the scale, speed, and cultural flair to leapfrog global competitors, but wasted opportunities in hardware, software, and social media must not be repeated in AI.
He closed with a clear message: ethics, safety, user education, and government partnerships are non-negotiable. “If engaging with policymakers isn’t your job, it’s nobody’s job. Build trust or risk everything crumbling overnight. Learn from our mistakes in gaming, make trust your ‘day zero’ priority.”
