On 04-10-2022, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has issued two Advisories, one for private television channels and the other for digital news publishers and OTT platforms advising them to refrain from showing advertisements of online betting sites and surrogate advertisements of such sites.
On 13-06-2022, the Ministry had earlier issued an Advisory advising newspapers, private TV channels and digital news publishers to refrain from publishing advertisements of online betting platforms.
Key points:
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Online offshore betting platforms are now using news websites as a surrogate product to advertise the betting platforms on digital media. Logos of surrogate news websites bear striking resemblance to betting platforms have been found and neither the betting platforms nor the news websites are registered under any legal authority in India.
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Since betting and gambling is illegal in most parts of the country, advertisements of these betting platforms as well as their surrogates are also illegal. The Ministry has also advised online advertisement intermediaries to not target such advertisements towards Indian audience.
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Betting and gambling pose significant financial and socio-economic risk for the consumers, especially youth and children. Accordingly, the promotion of offline or online betting/gambling through advertisements is not advised in larger public interest.