As part of an ecosystem approach to dismantle the fast-growing illegal online gaming sector in India, big tech players like Meta and Google need to play a significant role, according to a report released today by the Digital India Foundation.
The foundation is a not-for-profit think tank fostering digital inclusion and development. The report titled ‘Illegal Gambling and Betting Market in India: The Scale and Enablers’ analysed digital platform policies and found that while strict regulations exist for paid advertisements, enforcement remains inconsistent.
The illegal gambling and betting ecosystem in India operates through a sophisticated network of mechanisms involving digital advertisements, social media and messaging platforms, payment technologies such as cryptocurrency, etc. This illegal sector exceeds USD 100 billion per year and is growing fast at a rate of 30% per year, driven by increasing digital adoption, technological advancements, and regulatory uncertainty.
As per the report, the scale of illegal gambling and betting in India is staggering, with 1.6 billion visits recorded in just three months (October to December, 2024) across four analysed platforms – Parimatch, Stake, 1xBet, and Battery Bet. The analysis of the traffic sources to the four platforms showed that social media drove 42.8 million visits in the 3 months. This traffic stems from direct paid advertisements such as from the Facebook ad network, promoted content, influencer marketing, and social media engagement campaigns.
Given the enormity of the problem, the report recommends that a comprehensive strategy needs to be employed, including assigning liability to all key enablers of the illegal market, such as Google and Meta, while enforcing strict compliance requirements. To effectively combat illegal online betting and gambling, enforcement measures must move beyond isolated website blocking and adopt a comprehensive ecosystem-based approach.
The Indian government has attempted to curb these activities through website blocking and official advisories, but these measures in isolation have had limited effectiveness, as illegal operators continue to function with impunity, constantly adapting to evade enforcement. Hence, Indian government departments such as MIB, I4C, DGGI, the Department of Consumer Affairs, and MeitY should together or separately establish collaboration or arrangements with digital advertising intermediaries, including social media platforms, search engines, and ad networks, to proactively monitor, flag, and remove illegal betting and gambling-related advertisements.
Specific measures that can be undertaken in India are strict enforcement of ad policies to ban direct paid advertisements, enhanced content moderation to flag or remove user-generated content relating to illegal betting markets, and immediate suspension of influencers promoting illegal operators. Again, search results on search engines need to be downgraded to provide safe browsing options for players.
The report has highlighted that internationally, regulators actively collaborate with digital ad and social media platforms to monitor content and have mechanisms in place to identify and flag illegal gambling and betting material, including user-generated content. A comparative study conducted by the EU in 2018 found that 19 out of 24 national regulators had established some form of cooperation with social media companies. Regulators engaged with platforms such as Meta, X, and Google, working to remove illegal gambling advertisements, have taken actions against influencers or downgraded the ranking of illegal gambling sites in search results.
The United States provides a key example of legislated payment blocking through the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (‘UIGEA’). Rather than targeting individual users, the UIGEA focuses on financial institutions and payment processors, requiring them to prevent transactions that fund illegal internet gambling operations.
In the Indian ecosystem, a review of government documents analyzing the modus operandi of these illegal betting platforms reveals that at the heart of their operations lies the fundamental objective of attracting and retaining users, a goal primarily achieved through extensive, aggressive and often exaggerated advertising campaigns. According to ASCI’s Half-Yearly Report for 2024-25, illegal betting and gambling advertisements have surged across digital media in new formats.
Further, Google Search trends from February 2021 to December 2024 revealed an exponential rise in searches for Dafabet, 1xBet, Parimatch, 4rabet, and Khelo24Bet, with major spikes observed during Indian Premier League seasons (March – April) in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. Apart from search, illegal operators use aggressive SEO tactics to rank highly for searches like “best IPL betting site” and “online casino without KYC,” maximising visibility and user attraction. Indexed resources and links keep these websites easily accessible, even to unsuspecting users who may stumble upon them unintentionally while searching for related content.
Again, referral traffic generated 247.5 million visits to these illegal gambling sites, primarily from adult sites; sports-related websites; streaming services; and others including file-sharing, hosting and media platforms. Beyond this, illegal operators heavily use communication platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram for promotion. Influencers with millions of followers leverage “Channels” to broadcast gambling ads, mirroring social media influencer marketing and enabling instant mass outreach.
At the time of writing this report, Meta was hosting 1,040 ads across all its platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Threads, across various media formats under just the keywords “gambling” and “betting” on its feed. The traffic driven by both sponsored content and user-generated content includes platforms like YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp Web, X, Facebook, Reddit, and others.
Arvind Gupta, the Head and Co-Founder of Digital India Foundation said, “The mushrooming and growth of illegal betting platforms have created an atmosphere where Indian users visiting these sites often get comfortable and desensitized to the fact that they are engaging with illegal platforms. To effectively address this concerning issue, relying solely on standalone measures like blocking these illegal websites is not sufficient. Instead, a more comprehensive strategy is needed—one that targets the entire ecosystem enabling operations of illegal betting and gambling. This involves targeting user acquisition done through advertising, payment operators, and software providers supporting these platforms.
