Prohibited online betting in India gets on the surge, with an estimated 5.8 billion sees to the leading 15 platforms and their mirror sites between April 2025 and March 2025, as drivers make use of gaps in legislation and cleverly avoid the guidelines which are in place.
According to an evaluation by CUTS International, the billions in sees are just those which can be tracked and are linked to the top 15 unlawful betting systems and 40 of their mirror websites. These include 1xBet, Parimatch, Risk, Fairplay and BaterBet.
One surprising fact is that website traffic share for Parimatch ‘even outed perform widely utilized platforms such as amazon.in, Wikipedia.org, google.co.in, x.com linkedin.com, quora.com, and reddit.com’.
In a position of the most popular domain names in India, from March 2025, pari-matchin. com rated 8th – behind Google (17.29 percent), Youtube (5.65 percent), Instagram (1.84 percent), WhatsApp (1.41 percent), Facebook (1.35 percent), XHamster43.desi (1.31 percent) and ChatGPT (1.08 percent) – with a website traffic share of 1.06 percent.Read more 1xbet download apk At website Articles
The findings laid out in ‘Repairing the Odds: A Plan for Curbing Illegal Online Gaming in India’ highlight not only the marketplace range, but likewise how users are driven to unlawful gaming systems in India, exactly how they acquire users, payment systems that facilitate them and the regulatory spaces and obstacles that exist.
Acquiring individuals
Direct traffic has actually confirmed to be the largest resource of user engagement for unlawful online gambling in India, with some 3.57 billion gos to (or 66 percent of total web traffic) registered during the April 2025-March 2025 duration. This includes individuals manually getting in URLs, using bookmarks or duplicating web links from personal networks.
The success of this is based upon ‘an impression of credibility’, ‘unwanted advertising and marketing practices’, ‘personal network’ circulation (such as through WhatsApp or Telegram), information media advertising and marketing (consisting of television and billboard adverts), star endorsements and word-of mouth references.
Search traffic brought in some 652.2 million sees, with Google having 97 percent market share in this respect. This triggers concerns over the reality that prohibited betting systems ‘are efficiently indexed and rated high in search results page, assisted by hostile SEO strategies and weak enforcement by online search engine’.
Referral traffic, meanwhile, generated some 810.43 million brows through – consisting of affiliates, web links, direct media purchasing or information protection website traffic. 1xBet was attended have the biggest dependence of the 15 operators, obtaining 22.37 percent of its web traffic from the network.
Social media added 177.61 million brows through, ‘although the real quantity could be considerably greater because of untracked in-app mobile redirection’. Systems like YouTube, Reddit, Instagram and Facebook, X and WhatsApp were highlighted. However enforcement of this is puzzled as ‘the social media sites network shows a mix of peer-driven exploration and algorithmic promo and boosting, posturing a complex enforcement obstacle’.
Completely, unlawful betting systems ‘grow direct partnerships with users, maximize their online search engine visibility, deploy countless mirror websites to remain obtainable, and leverage affiliates and social media to maintain new customers coming Just blocking one URL or ad network has restricted effect when drivers can change domains and use an all set audience that proactively seeks them out’.
Other techniques, such as surrogate advertising and marketing – using spin-off entities that ‘mimic the branding, logos and names of popular illegal video gaming systems’, using brand ambassadors and physical marketing – signboards and advertisements, are likewise showing extremely efficient in reaching out to a target market that authorities would certainly really hope is not encouraged to wager illegally.
Barriers
One of the key reasons for individuals selecting to gamble on illegal betting platforms in India is the high tax obligation on down payments – 28 percent – which ‘significantly minimize the value individuals obtain’, creating individual to ‘choose prohibited platforms to prevent such costs and reroute the financial savings right into rewarding economic incentives, therefore increasing their appeal’.
This is paired with the ‘immersive and high-risk experiences’ that illegal platforms supply.
The report shows that ‘systems such as Risk and 1xBet incorporate psychological style techniques – such as variable reward systems, ‘near-miss impacts’, and gamified notifications – that more make use of cognitive prejudices and promote compulsive engagement’.
This is enhanced by ‘higher-risk wagering’ assisted in by these platforms, ‘which amplifies exhilaration and thrill’.
This increases the danger of ‘raised degrees of stress and anxiety, depression, and emotional instability’, specifically in the lack of consumer security devices and harm-reduction mechanisms.
Repayments
One way that regulators can go after these illegal systems is by targeting payment systems.
The record recognizes the United Repayments Interface (UPI) system as the ‘key channel for processing down payments on prohibited gaming platforms. In October of 2025, the country’s Ministry of Home Matters launched an advising caution concerning ‘illegal digital settlement portals’, which the report notes are ‘relying upon mule or rented out accounts’ and are ‘provided as a service for gathering deposits on prohibited systems, consisting of betting and phony financial investment scams’. Mule accounts ‘are commonly sourced through systems like Telegram and Facebook and are remotely controlled from overseas’.
‘There is no sign that these operations have declined. As a matter of fact the large quantity of monetary activity suggests that current enforcement efforts versus these distributes have been mostly inadequate’.
Digital pocketbooks – such as Astropay, Neteller and Skrill, and cryptocurrencies – Bitcoin, Tether, Ethereum etc, have actually likewise shown very reliable to circumvent guidelines and also ‘bypass the Indian economic system completely’.
Present structure
‘The existing Indian governing structure on gambling, wagering and video games of skill is characterized by a disjointed yet slowly developing governing landscape that shows the nation’s colonial legal heritage together with modern-day electronic imperatives’.
The primary legal instrument in position is the general public Betting Act of 1867, ‘a law that was conceived long prior to the arrival of the internet’.
The report highlights 10 other laws, guidelines or advisories that control gambling activities in the country – both on-line and land-based (with lawful online casino gaming limited to Goa and Sikkim, neither of which ‘have accepted licensing applications from on-line casino sites’).
Recommendations
The record breaks down possible actions right into five bottom lines:
- Reinforcing economic oversight: ‘codifying settlement stopping in legislation associating with prohibited operators’ and ‘initiating devoted, thorough research study to far better map vulnerabilities and educate targeted treatments’
- Improving blocking actions: using ‘sophisticated digital enforcement innovations’ such as artificial intelligence and artificial intelligence to ‘determine and pre-emptively obstruct unauthorized on-line platforms’
- Strengthening partnerships with Big Tech: establishing ‘institutional collaborations with major technology middlemans – social media sites, internet search engine, and advertisement networks – to suppress the exposure and promo of unlawful gaming’
- Enhancing customer defense: making use of public understanding campaigns that ‘plainly interact the personal and social injuries of illegal betting
- Leveraging behavior insights and public recognition: work to ‘comprehend the behavioral vehicle drivers and individual inspirations that maintain demand’
The report itself does not disparage gambling itself. Still, it raises strong issues concerning a substantial lack of regulations and the advanced techniques that illegal online drivers can utilize to target the Indian consumer, prompting speedy renovation to prevent prospective injury.