ED Summons Google, Meta In Betting App Case

As part of its ongoing investigation into alleged money laundering linked to betting apps, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued notices to tech giants Meta and Google.

An ANI report, citing sources, said that the ED has summoned both the companies to appear before its Delhi headquarters on July 21. 

The authority has taken this step on the back of these tech giants allegedly promoting betting platforms through advertisements.

This comes days after ED filed an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) against celebrities, including Rana Daggubati, Prakash Raj, Vijay Deverakonda and 26 others for allegedly promoting illegal betting apps.  

These 29 people were booked for allegedly breaching the Public Gambling Act, 1867. This legal act prohibits public gambling and the operation or management of platforms promoting or facilitating it.

The ECIR accuses these celebrities for taking up paid promotions of betting platforms such as Junglee Rummy, A23, JeetWin, Parimatch and Lotus365, among others, which are suspected to be involved in large-scale money laundering. 

As per reports, this investigation goes back to an FIR filed in Indore’s Lasudiya Police Station back in January this year. The FIR broadly alleges the movement of money in these betting platforms via hawala operators.

Hawala operators are individuals that run an informal and unregulated money transfer network outside the traditional banking system. 

As per the FIR, Vishal Agnihotri, the owner of VMoney and 11Starss acquired the “admin rights” of the LotusBook betting platform on a 5% profit-sharing arrangement. Notably, VMoney and 11Starss are online betting platforms which are on ED’s radar.

Later Agnihotri transferred most of these rights to a platform operator named Dhaval Devraj Jain, who handled all the technical aspects for developing and operating the illegal betting platform for 11Starss. Whereas the cash-based fund transfer was facilitated by a hawala operator.

The case opened ED’s way to probe into illegal betting platforms and restrict its promotion via digital media. 

ED’s Close Scrutiny On Betting Apps

Last year, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) issued an advisory highlighting the increase in illegal online betting platforms in the country and warned celebrities from promoting such applications. 

Months after this advisory, ED found a money laundering operation directed by illegal gaming and betting apps via kirana stores. 

As per reports, more than two dozen offshore gaming applications are under the radar of ED for remitting and round-tripping funds, as they have caused gamblers to incur losses of INR 1 Lakh Cr.

Around the same time, ED caught four people for their alleged involvement in a scam carried out via online gaming application ‘Fiewin’ to defraud users of over INR 400 Cr. 

As per a statement by IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Centre blocked 1,298 online gambling websites and apps between 2022 and 2024.