In light of the curbs placed on the online betting space, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting today issued an advisory refraining the online betting platforms from advertising on outdoor media.
The advisory stated that while the advertisements of online betting platforms have been curbed in the mainstream print, electronic and digital media, the platforms have started using outdoor media like hoardings, posters, banners, and auto rickshaw branding among other platforms to promote the websites/apps.
Furthermore, advertisers have been advised to take appropriate action to curb outdoor advertisements on betting and gambling platforms.
The Ministry had earlier issued an advisory on April 6, 2023, stating online betting platforms should refrain from showing advertisements and surrogate advertisements of such sites. The advisory provided evidence that contained direct and surrogate advertisements of offshore betting platforms such as Fairplay, Lotus365, betwayscores, Panther777, Khiladi.com, and 1xBet.
Similarly, it had also issued an advisory on June 13, 2022, where the Ministry had taken strong exception to the publication/transmission on various media platforms of advertisements/promotional content of betting platforms/sites and had strongly advised media to refrain from transmitting such content, including their depiction as news websites or such other activities in a surrogate manner.
While issuing the advisory, the Ministry had made mention of the fact that betting and gambling is an illegal activities, and hence advertisements/promotion of such activities directly or indirectly on any of the media platforms falls foul of the various statutes, including under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, the Press Council Act 1978, Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 and others.