ED takes note of leading dailies for ‘surrogate ads' of illegal betting platforms ‘preying' on users

The Print

10 hours ago

This and other such apps are not only being endorsed by celebrities—including former cricketers like Shikhar Dhawan and actors like Sonu Sood—but their ads also appear prominently on the front pages of major Indian publications, for which they have been paid more than Rs 50 crore, ThePrint has learnt. Dhawan's team has denied he is associated with the betting app.
Once a person scans and clicks the link, they are redirected to '1xBet', a betting platform.
New Delhi: A full front-page advertisement in three prominent newspapers urges readers to scan a QR code to join 1XBAT Sporting Lines, a sports merchandise brand allegedly linked to an offshore betting platform.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is investigating several illegal gaming cases, has now taken note of these 'surrogate advertisements'. Thousands of people are falling prey to this misleading promotion daily through these QR codes, a source said.
A source familiar with the matter said this practice—promoting betting platforms under the name of sports merchandise brands 1XBAT and 1XBAT Sporting Lines—violates multiple laws and regulations, including the Information Technology Act, Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), and advisories issued by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB).
'There are 22 crore Indian users of various betting apps. 11 crore are regular users. Moreover, by looking at these ads in the papers, many more people are joining these applications and falling prey on a daily basis,' a source said.
When the investigators approached the media outlets to ask who were giving these ads, no clear answers were given. 'They said a company based in Switzerland was giving the ads,' the source said.
ThePrint reached out to 1XBAT over social media with queries but no response was received. Their website 1xbatsporting.com does not mention any email address or details of the company's owners. This report will be updated as and when a response is received.
According to ED sources, 1xBet, FairPlay, Parimatch, Lotus365 are heavily promoted by celebrities. For example, 1xBet is promoted by Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Sonu Sood, Suresh Raina, Urvashi Rautela and several social media influencers, despite bans.
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'Rs 27000 crore evaded every year'
According to sources in the agency, in just the first three months of 2025, more than 1.6 billion visits happened on illegal betting websites.
'The online betting market in India is now worth over $100 billion, growing 30 percent every year,' a source said. 'As per estimates, top betting apps are evading Rs 27,000 crore in taxes every year.'
The officer explained that many apps use the name of 'skill games' to appear legal, which in reality is not the case. The results of these games are not based on skill but purely on luck. 'Fantasy games involve money and rigged algorithms. If money is at stake, it is not a game, it is gambling,' the officer said.
'It is a menace. It is not just an addiction but causes stress, depression and even leads to suicides as it pushes people in debt,' a second officer said.
'In India, thousands including students and housewives have died by suicide due to online betting losses. A PIL says over 1,023 suicides happened in Telangana alone. Poor people suffer the most. They fall into the trap of easy money and lose everything,' the officer explained.
The officer added that there have been many instances that came to their notice of school and college children getting involved in these games and losing money just in a bid to 'get rich fast'.
According to a second source, dummy accounts were made on the platform by officers probing the cases and details of deposit and withdrawal through mule accounts were identified.
The ED has identified several Benami accounts till now and action has been taken. But this is a rampant problem and a challenging one, the source said.
'They use accounts for only a few hours. By the time we identify the VPA handle, call details from NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India) and send directions to the Bank; money is already gone,' the source explained.
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'Need for regulation'
Alerted by the high volume of transactions and the scale of money involved, the Centre is also undertaking a deep look into the multi-billion dollar online gaming industry, red-flagged by investigating agencies for fraud and money laundering.
Although several meetings have taken place in this regard, nothing concrete has yet been decided.
Sources in the security establishment told ThePrint that various ministries, departments, and agencies were collectively working on a comprehensive report on the extent of growth of the online gaming industry and its national security ramifications to recommend regulations for the industry.
The primary aim is to bring the online gaming companies under anti-money laundering laws, subjecting them to stricter compliance and financial scrutiny, to curb unchecked mushrooming of online gaming apps—already under probe—duping users.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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