No promotion of betting: Information and Broadcasting Ministry to media

 NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting today advised all stakeholders, including media entities, online advertisement intermediaries, and social media platforms, to immediately refrain from showing advertisements or promotional content on betting or gambling in any form. It has been added that failure to adhere to this advisory may invite appropriate action from the Government of India under various statutes.

The Ministry has cited the recent Central Government action against a network of agents who had collected substantial money from users of gambling apps that had subsequently funnelled the funds out of India to reiterate that advertisements for gambling and betting platforms pose significant financial and socio-economic risk for consumers, especially youth and children. It has further been added that this mechanism has linkages to money laundering networks, thereby threatening the financial security of the country.

The Ministry has stated in the advisory that, along with these illegalities, it is also highly likely that black money is used to pay for such advertisements. To that end, the Ministry has noted that certain media entities, including advertisement intermediaries and social media platforms, have been allowing direct and indirect advertisements of betting and gambling platforms during major sporting events, including cricket tournaments. Further, the Ministry has observed that there is a tendency to spike promotion of such betting and gambling platforms during a major sporting event, especially cricket, and one such important international event is beginning in a few days.

The Ministry has issued advisories to warn media platforms against publicising betting and gambling platforms. The online advertisement intermediaries have also been advised not to target such advertisements at the Indian audience. Advisories issued by the Ministry on 13.06.2022, 03.10.2022 and 06.04.2023 were issue to this end. These advisories have stated that betting and gambling are illegal activities, and hence advertisements or promotions of such activities, directly or indirectly, on any of the media platforms fall foul of the various statutes, including the Consumer Protection Act of 2019, the Press Council Act of 1978, etc. (PIB)

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