Offshore gaming cos evade betting law via Surrogate ads, social media

Mumbai: Offshore gaming companies are keeping their gambling services in India alive through surrogate advertising, covert use of messaging platforms and social media influencers, according to investigators, changing tactics as authorities tighten scrutiny under the country's new anti-betting law.

Officials said several such platforms are pushing promotions through Instagram pages and other digital handles that ostensibly share sports updates.

"In the case of Parimatch, a news page on Instagram provided routine cricket or football updates, but links to the gaming application were embedded to hook users," said a source.


In August, Parliament passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025, which includes an anti-betting provision to ban online money games due to their links to addiction, financial ruin and social distress.

Also Read: Stop them at the gate! India has a new battle against the betting traps

The same month, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) froze ₹110 crore parked in mule accounts and seized 1,200 mule credit cards during raids at 17 locations. The agency also found that Parimatch had floated Indian entities under the names Parimatch Sports and Parimatch News to run surrogate advertisements.

Offshore betting companies are estimated to generate more than ₹85,000 crore in India through their gambling services, with individual applications reportedly making between ₹3,000 crore and ₹5,000 crore annually.

To expand reach, promoters are entering into contracts with influencers, B-list actors and even sportspersons-often using messaging applications with no legal sanctity.

"Payments to these individuals typically originate from entities in Cyprus, Dubai and similar jurisdictions," said an official.

As part of its investigation, the ED has summoned some celebrities in connection with the 1xBet case. Among them are former cricketers Robin Uthappa and Yuvraj Singh, who will appear before the ED on September 22 and 23, respectively, and actor Sonu Sood a day later. Among the others questioned or summoned are Urvashi Rautela, Mimi Chakraborty and Ankush Hazra.

The investigation also revealed that payment companies whose applications for payment aggregator licence had been rejected by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) offered services to Parimatch while posing as technology service providers (TSPs). These firms provided APIs (payment application programming interface) to Parimatch agents, who then opened mule accounts in the names of ecommerce and payment solution provider firms. The money collected from users through UPI transfers was layered and routed as e-commerce refunds, vendor payments or chargebacks-effectively concealing the true flow and purpose of the funds, the ED said.

The probe also revealed that some advertising agencies facilitated endorsements, while funds moved through wallets, mule accounts, crypto, and even hawala networks.

The apps also profiled users extensively, offering "VIP privileges" to high-spending patrons.