Stop them at the gate! India has a new battle against the offshore betting traps

India’s Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs has raised the stakes in the battle against offshore betting firms. In its 254th report on Cyber Crime—Ramifications, Protection and Prevention, the panel urged the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) to impose tougher checks on advertisers based outside the country, according to an Economic Times report.

At the heart of its call is a demand for comprehensive digital verification: official documents, live video identification, and “zero-trust” frameworks that constantly authenticate the advertiser’s identity, payment credentials and campaign details. Without such steps, the committee warned, the market will remain wide open to fraudulent and deceptive promotions that target Indian users.

Also Read: Panel bats for stricter checks on offshore advertisers

Industry experts had told Economic Times the government’s recent ban on online real money gaming (RMG) has left domestic platforms crippled — but opened the floodgates for foreign players. Sites like Parimatch, 1XBet, RajaBets and 4RABet are now luring punters with aggressive offers.


The law of unintended consequences

The landscape has shifted dramatically as India's parliament passed a bill banning online real money gaming (RMG).

Domestic firms, from fantasy sports giants to casual gaming platforms, were forced to shut their money-based offerings. But there is a great risk of a rush of familiar names to rush to fill the vaccum. These include Parimatch, 1XBet, RajaBets, 4RABet and Odds92, among others. These offshore sites didn’t just arrive; they arrived bearing gifts. Deposit bonuses leapt to dizzying levels — anywhere from 200% to 700% on deposits of ₹30,000 to ₹1 lakh, along with extras like 500 free spins.

To put it plainly, a user depositing ₹100 could walk away with betting credit worth between ₹200 and ₹700.

“This sudden strike against the organised industry has unleashed a monster in the form of offshore betting platforms that the government can't control,” one company founder told Economic Times, asking not to be named. “Authorities were already fighting tooth and nail to curb proxy websites before the bill, but now we are not even technologically prepared to deal with the surge in surrogate advertising and cash-based play.”

Also Read: Offshore betting sites cash in as RMG ban-hit local players retreat

The founder’s warning was stark: algorithms designed for users to lose, aggressive promotions of addictive gambling, and a looming spike in loan defaults and suicides. The government cited these social costs while imposing the ban, a move that stunned domestic gaming firms.

Data from the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) shows offshore betting accounted for 43.5% of all ad violations in FY25, making it the single largest non-compliant category. The self-regulator reviewed over 9,500 complaints and flagged 7,199 ads last year, with betting emerging as the worst offender. Back in 2022, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of India had issued advisories warning TV channels, OTT platforms and digital publishers against carrying such ads.

The cybercrime surge

Younger gamers, in particular, are being targeted with fake refund links, phishing scams, malicious “mirror apps” and grey-market wallets.

Meanwhile, tutorials are proliferating on encrypted apps such as Signal and Telegram, guiding users on how to access platforms like Maxbet or Mega:Pari and move money with minimal friction.

The Union Minister for Electronics and IT, Ashwini Vaishnaw, recently told ET that the government had been in talks with the gaming industry for more than three years. A self-regulating body was even proposed, he said, but ultimately the harms outweighed the case for compromise.

"We have seen the online gaming sector has become a very major part of the digital economy in recent years. This sector has three segments. Two of these – online social games and e-sports – are useful for society. The third, online money gaming, has seriously affected our middle class, our rural families, our youth and our students. There are so many cases of suicides, addiction, and psychological behaviour getting changed because of disorders caused by online money games. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has even classified this as a gaming disorder as a part of their International Classification of Diseases. Feedback was consistently coming from every part of the country, whether Congress or NDA-ruled states, that this is harmful for society, and that action needs to be taken," Vaishnaw told ET.

For the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), this was about principle. Secretary S Krishnan described the curbs as serving “the larger public interest”. He told CNBC: “Not fair to look at the bill only as a prohibition effort, concerns around job losses were considered. This is well within the government of India’s remit… this is a societal decision.”

Counting the cost

An official source told PTI that the government estimates 45 crore Indians lose nearly ₹20,000 crore every year to online real money gaming. The implication was clear: better to forgo tax revenue than to see that kind of wealth siphoned from households.

Also Read: Govt estimates 45 cr people lose about Rs 20,000 cr annually from real money gaming

By effectively gutting the $3.8 billion domestic betting industry, India has also surrendered more than $2 billion in annual tax income, analysts say. And still the gambling demand — estimated at nearly $100 billion annually — is flowing offshore, mainly to firms that thrive on cricket, especially during the Indian Premier League, Bloomberg had reported citing analysts' estimates.

All India-based firms — Dream11, MPL, Winzo, Zupee, Gameskraft — have discontinued money-based play. Offshore operators, unencumbered by regulation, have doubled down.

Also Read: View: India’s betting-app ban will stoke money laundering

Many sites now deal in crypto, meaning deposits and payouts can bypass banks entirely. Just a username, email and password are enough to start. With nearly 100 million crypto wallets already active in India, these offshore proceeds risk becoming a handy pool of liquidity for residents eager to dodge capital controls. Some of that will involve illicit activity. Almost all of it will avoid detection

Bloomberg in an opinion piece said that some activity will shift to physical venues such as Delta Corp.’s licensed casinos in Goa and Sikkim. Those gambling for leisure, particularly the country’s unemployed youth, may drift towards social gaming platforms, trading money wagers for in-app rewards.