The government has raised concerns over OTT platforms and social media sites airing advertisements of offshore gambling and betting apps that are facing massive criticism due to security concerns among other issues.
According to sources, the advertisements were discussed in detail in a recent meeting held this month with multiple agencies and ministries.
The government of India has already asked TV channels and OTT platforms to not show the ads but despite the directive, some OTT platforms are airing them, a senior official who attended the meeting told News18. Last year, the government had asked all satellite TV and streaming services like Netflix, Hotstar and Amazon Prime Video etc to not to air advertisements or promotional videos of gambling and betting or legal action would be initiated against them. However, during technical analysis it was found that these apps were using a few OTT platforms which are not top-rated for their ads. Some of them show only 18+ content.
The officer said after failing to use TV channels, the biggest advertisement tool for these betting and gambling apps running from an unknown or suspect location is social media sites and apps. Fake companies are also pushing ads through accounts that have more followers on social media sites and apps. Various influencers — specially mid, micro and nano tier influencers — have been noticed promoting these offshore betting and gambling apps in their videos.
It is expected that the government will soon issue an advisory for social media influencers to avoid promoting such dubious apps which are harming the financial and security structure of the country. Also, the government is likely to rope in known social media faces to make people aware of these apps which are cheating the public, the official added.
Officials also raised concerns over the number of complaints the government has received in the past few months about fraud that these companies are committing.
Since 2018, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) of MHA has received more than 8,000 complaints in the category of Online Gambling/Betting.
Common modus operandi
These betting apps accept payments through UPI, bank transfers, credit/debit cards, among other modes (which also includes cryptocurrency). Since betting and gambling is illegal in most of India, these payments are received by Indian agents or companies established in India for this purpose. Later, they got transferred to the actual account which remains tough to track.
‘Threat to financial security’
According to an official communication on these apps, government agencies have said these platforms demand other sensitive details such as bank account numbers, Aadhaar number, PAN card, etc. of the players in the guise of player verification, thus posing a threat to the personal information of Indian citizens.
It is suspected that the revenue so generated is siphoned off from India through hawala, cryptocurrencies or other black market transactions, threatening the financial security of India. The money may also be used for funding other illegal and criminal activities which may hamper public order and national security.
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