Mumbai: Illegal online gambling and betting platforms in India are fast emerging as a formidable national challenge, with annual deposits estimated to be nearing USD 100 billion, according to a comprehensive report released by public policy think tank CUTS International. The report highlights the growing public policy, consumer protection, and national security concerns associated with the unregulated and rapidly expanding digital gambling ecosystem in the country.
The report documents over 5.4 billion visits to the top 15 illegal gambling platforms—including 1xBet, Parimatch, Stake, Fairplay, and BateryBet—across 40 of their mirror websites between April 2024 and March 2025. One of the most striking findings is that in March 2025, Parimatch’s traffic share surpassed leading platforms like amazon.in, wikipedia.org, google.co.in, hotstar.com, and flipkart.com. These figures underscore the massive scale, influence, and reach that illegal gambling operators have achieved within India’s digital landscape.
“These operators are not just flouting Indian laws—they are strategically exploiting gaps in the advertising, digital, and financial infrastructure,” said Pradeep Mehta, Founder and Secretary General of CUTS International. “They are diverting huge sums of money outside the country and putting millions of Indian consumers, especially young users, at grave risk. This is a clear and present danger to India’s financial sovereignty and consumer safety.”
Sophisticated User Targeting and Traffic Engineering
The report outlines how these platforms deploy complex user acquisition and engagement strategies to create a perception of credibility and entertainment. Over 66% of the total traffic—amounting to more than 3.5 billion visits—is attributed to direct sources, such as users typing in URLs, bookmarking sites, or accessing them through private messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram. This behavioural pattern suggests a false sense of trust, with many users assuming these platforms are legitimate and established.
In addition, mass media visibility plays a critical role in building brand recall and normalising gambling. These platforms use television ads, billboards, celebrity endorsements, and sports sponsorships to reinforce their image. Aided by aggressive SEO strategies, these platforms also rank prominently on Google Search, with search traffic alone driving over 650 million visits in the past year—highlighting a failure of oversight by digital gatekeepers.
Exploiting Payment Loopholes and Technological Tools
According to the report, the financial infrastructure in India is being actively manipulated by these operators to enable untraceable fund transfers. The Unified Payments Interface (UPI), mule accounts, and side-loaded mobile APKs are used extensively to move money stealthily. In a deeply concerning trend, some operators like Parimatch even offer cash-on-delivery options, enabling underage users with no access to digital wallets or cards to place bets easily and repeatedly—often without their guardians’ knowledge.
The use of sophisticated mobile apps like XHelper, which coordinate large networks of mule accounts to obfuscate transactions, points to a high degree of technological evolution in this illegal ecosystem. This clandestine infrastructure is now embedded deeply within the digital economy, operating in parallel to legal systems and often outpacing enforcement mechanisms.
Enforcement Efforts and Regulatory Shortcomings
In response to rising concerns, the Indian government has stepped up enforcement. On March 22, 2025, the Ministry of Finance announced that nearly 700 offshore gambling entities were under investigation. Actions have included blocking 357 websites/URLs and freezing almost 2,000 bank accounts suspected of facilitating illicit betting transactions.
Despite these efforts, the CUTS report warns that India’s regulatory landscape remains fragmented and reactive. There is currently no central authority to oversee and enforce gambling-related laws across sectors. India also lacks formal advertising regulations, domain monitoring systems, and payment-blocking protocols tailored to the gambling sector. In contrast, countries such as the UK and Australia have built collaborative enforcement models involving government agencies, tech platforms, and financial regulators.
Strategic Recommendations for a National Framework
To address these gaps, the report calls for a coordinated national strategy. It recommends establishing a high-level inter-ministerial task force to develop a unified framework covering payments, advertising, consumer protection, platform accountability, and cross-border enforcement. CUTS also urges the government to forge stronger partnerships with major tech companies like Google and Meta to prevent the indexing, advertising, and algorithmic promotion of illegal gambling content.
Public awareness is another cornerstone of the proposed strategy. The report advocates for nationwide awareness campaigns and the commissioning of behavioural research to understand the psychological triggers drawing users—particularly youth—to these high-risk platforms. This is crucial for designing evidence-based intervention programs.
“If we don’t act now, we risk allowing these illegal networks to entrench themselves permanently within our digital and financial systems,” Mehta cautioned. “Our goal must be to safeguard not just the economy, but the health, wellbeing, and future of our younger generations.”
As India’s digital economy continues to expand, experts warn that without immediate, sustained, and systemic intervention, the illegal gambling threat could become one of the country’s most pressing cyber-financial challenges.
