Illegal online gambling in India is on the rise, with an estimated 5.8 billion visits to the top 15 platforms and their mirror sites between April 2024 and March 2025, as operators take advantage of gaps in legislation and cleverly sidestep the regulations which are in place.
According to an analysis by CUTS International, the billions in visits are just those which can be tracked and are linked to the top 15 illegal gambling platforms and 40 of their mirror sites. These include 1xBet, Parimatch, Stake, Fairplay and BaterBet.
One surprising statistic is that traffic share for Parimatch ‘even outranked widely used platforms such as amazon.in, Wikipedia.org, google.co.in, x.com […] linkedin.com, quora.com, and reddit.com’.
In a ranking of the most popular domains in India, from March 2025, pari-matchin.com ranked 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 traffic share of 1.06 percent.
The findings outlined in ‘Fixing the Odds: A Policy Blueprint for Curbing Illegal Online Gambling in India’ highlight not only the market scale, but also how users are driven to illegal gambling platforms in India, how they acquire users, payment systems that facilitate them and the regulatory gaps and challenges that exist.
Acquiring users
Direct traffic has proven to be the largest source of user engagement for illegal online gambling in India, with some 3.57 billion visits (or 66 percent of total traffic) registered during the April 2024-March 2025 period. This includes users manually entering URLs, using bookmarks or copying links from private channels.
The success of this is based on ‘an illusion of trustworthiness’, ‘unsolicited marketing practices’, ‘private channel’ distribution (such as through WhatsApp or Telegram), mass media advertising (including TV and billboard adverts), celebrity endorsements and word-of mouth referrals.
Search traffic brought in some 652.2 million visits, with Google having 97 percent market share in this regard. This causes concerns over the fact that illegal gambling platforms ‘are successfully indexed and ranked high in search results, aided by aggressive SEO tactics and weak enforcement by search engines’.
Referral traffic, meanwhile, brought in some 810.43 million visits – including affiliates, links, direct media buying or news coverage traffic. 1xBet was seen to have the largest dependency of the 15 operators, getting 22.37 percent of its traffic from the channel.
Social media contributed 177.61 million visits, ‘although the actual volume could be significantly higher due to untracked in-app mobile redirection’. Platforms like YouTube, Reddit, Instagram and Facebook, X and WhatsApp were highlighted. But enforcement of this is stumped as ‘the social media channel reflects a mix of peer-driven discovery and algorithmic promotion and amplification, posing a complex enforcement challenge’.
Altogether, illegal gambling platforms ‘cultivate direct relationships with users, optimize their search engine presence, deploy numerous mirror sites to remain reachable, and leverage affiliates and social media to keep new users coming […] Simply blocking one URL or ad channel has limited impact when operators can shift domains and tap into a ready audience that actively seeks them out’.
Other methods, such as surrogate advertising – using spin-off entities that ‘mimic the branding, logos and names of popular illegal gaming platforms’, the use of brand ambassadors and physical advertising – billboards and ads, are also proving highly effective in reaching out to an audience that authorities would hope is not encouraged to gamble illegally.
Hindrances
One of the primary reasons for users choosing to gamble on illegal gambling platforms in India is the high tax on deposits – 28 percent – which ‘significantly reduce the value users receive’, causing user to ‘seek out illegal platforms to avoid such costs and redirect the savings into lucrative financial incentives, thereby increasing their appeal’.
This is coupled with the ‘immersive and high-risk experiences’ that illegal platforms offer.
The report indicates that ‘platforms such as Stake and 1xBet incorporate psychological design techniques – such as variable reward systems, “near-miss effects”, and gamified notifications – that further exploit cognitive biases and promote compulsive engagement’.
This is amplified by ‘higher-risk betting’ facilitated by these platforms, ‘which amplifies excitement and thrill’.
This increases the risk of ‘elevated levels of anxiety, depression, and emotional instability’, particularly in the absence of consumer protection tools and harm-reduction mechanisms.
Payments
One way that regulators can go after these illegal platforms is by targeting payment systems.
The report identifies the United Payments Interface (UPI) system as the ‘primary channel for processing deposits on illegal gambling platforms. In October of 2024, the nation’s Ministry of Home Affairs released an advisory warning about ‘illegal digital payment gateways’, which the report notes are ‘relying on mule or rented accounts’ and are ‘offered as a service for collecting deposits on illegal platforms, including betting and fake investment scams’. Mule accounts ‘are often sourced through platforms like Telegram and Facebook and are remotely controlled from overseas’.
‘There is no indication that these operations have declined. On the contrary […] the sheer volume of financial activity suggests that current enforcement efforts against these syndicates have been largely ineffective’.
Digital wallets – such as Astropay, Neteller and Skrill, and cryptocurrencies – Bitcoin, Tether, Ethereum etc, have also proven highly effective to circumvent regulations and even ‘bypass the Indian financial system entirely’.
Current framework
‘The existing Indian regulatory framework on gambling, betting and games of skill is characterized by a disjointed yet gradually evolving regulatory landscape that reflects the country’s colonial legal heritage alongside modern digital imperatives’.
The primary legal instrument in place is the Public Gambling Act of 1867, ‘a statute that was conceived long before the advent of the internet’.
The report highlights 10 other laws, guidelines or advisories that regulate gambling activities in the country – both online and land-based (with legal casino gambling restricted to Goa and Sikkim, neither of which ‘have accepted licensing applications from online casinos’).
However, ‘current measures to combat illegal gambling in India are significantly lacking’.
But what can be done?
Recommendations
The report breaks down possible actions into five main points:
- Strengthening financial oversight: ‘codifying payment blocking in law relating to illegal operators’ and ‘initiating dedicated, in-depth research to better map […] vulnerabilities and inform targeted interventions’
- Improving blocking measures: using ‘advanced digital enforcement technologies’ such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to ‘identify and pre-emptively block unauthorized online platforms’
- Strengthening partnerships with Big Tech: establishing ‘institutional partnerships with major tech intermediaries – social media, search engines, and ad networks – to curb the visibility and promotion of illegal gambling’
- Enhancing consumer protection: using public awareness campaigns that ‘clearly communicate the personal and social harms of illegal gambling
- Leveraging behavioral insights and public awareness: work to ‘understand the behavioral drivers and user motivations that sustain demand’
The report itself does not disparage gambling itself. Still, it raises strong concerns about a significant lack of legislation and the sophisticated tactics that illegal online operators can employ to target the Indian consumer, urging swift improvement to avoid potential harm.
