The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Friday issued a fresh advisory asking all stakeholders, including the media entities, online advertisement intermediaries and social media platforms, to “immediately refrain” from showing ads or promotional content on betting or gambling in any form. The Ministry has said that it will take “appropriate action” against errant players under various statutes.

The fresh advisory comes before key sporting events such as the Asia Cup and ICC World Cup. The Ministry noted that certain media entities, including advertisement intermediaries and social media platforms, have been allowing direct and indirect advertisements of betting and gambling platforms during major sporting events, including cricket tournaments. “It is observed there is a tendency to spike promotion of such betting and gambling platforms during a major sporting event, especially cricket, and one such important international event is beginning in a few days from now,” it added.

The Ministry pointed out that the Central government had recently taken action against a network of agents who had collected substantial money from users of gambling apps that had subsequently funneled the funds out of India. It reiterated that advertisements of gambling and betting platforms “pose significant financial and socio-economic risk for the consumers, especially youth and children.” Pointing out to linkages to money laundering networks, the Ministry added that such platforms threaten the financial security of the country. It also pointed out that it’s “highly likely” that black money is used to pay for such ads.

Advisory

In the past, the Ministry has issued three advisories warning platforms against promoting gambling platforms. These advisories have stated that betting and gambling are illegal activities and hence advertisements/promotion of such activities, directly or indirectly, on any of the media platforms are violation a of various statutes, including the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, and the Press Council Act 1978

According to the IT(Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, intermediaries are required to “make reasonable efforts” to ensure their platforms are not used to 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 online game; 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 such as online game.”