In light of the curbs placed on the online betting space, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) today has issued an advisory refraining the online betting platforms from advertising on any media especially big sporting events.
The advisory stated that while the advertisements of online betting platforms have been curbed in the mainstream print, electronic, digital and outdoor media, certain media entities and social media platforms have been allowing direct or indirect betting and gambling platforms during major sporting events, including cricket tournaments. It highlighted that there is a tendency to spike promotion of betting and gambling platforms during a major sporting event, especially cricket, with one such international event set to take place in a few days.
Furthermore, MIB has advised all stakeholders including media entities, online advertisement intermediaries, and social media platforms to refrain from advertising online betting and gambling platforms in any form.
Additionally, the advisory stated that action had been taken against a network of agents who had collected money from users of gambling apps and funnelled the funds out of India, highlighting its financial and socioeconomic risks as well as its linkages to money-laundering thereby threatening the financial security of the country.
The Ministry had earlier issued an advisory on May 2, 2023, stating online betting platforms should refrain from advertising using outdoor media including hoardings, posters, banners and auto-rickshaw branding among other platforms to promote the websites or apps.
Similarly, the Ministry had 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.
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.
The advisory further stated that intermediaries shall make reasonable efforts by itself and to cause the users of its computer resource to not host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update or share any information that “is in the nature of an online game that is not verified as a permissible game; (x) is in the nature of advertisement or surrogate advertisement or promotion of an online game that is not a permissible online game, or of any online gaming intermediary offering any such online game” under the recently amended rule 3 (1) (b) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
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