MIB Asks States To Curb Outdoor Ads Of Betting & Gambling Platforms

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has issued an advisory to curb outdoor advertisements of betting and gambling platforms.

MIB secretary Apurva Chandra has written a letter to chief secretaries of all states and UTs to curb outdoor ads. In the letter, he noted that betting and gambling is illegal in most parts of the country as they pose financial and social economic risk for consumers, especially youth and children.

“While such advertisements have been largely curbed in mainstream print, electronic and digital media, it has now come to the notice that some betting and gambling platforms have started using outdoor media such as hoardings, posters, banners, auto rickshaw branding, etc. to promote their websites/apps in India,” he said.

Earlier this month, MIB advised media entities, media platforms and online advertisement intermediaries to refrain from carrying advertisements/promotional content of betting platforms.

The ministry said that betting and gambling are illegal activities and hence advertisements/ promotion of such activities directly or indirectly on any of the media platforms fall foul of the regulations.

The ministry also highlighted the earlier advisories it issued last October. It then directed digital advertisement intermediaries to not use betting promotional material for Indian audiences.

At that time, the MIB noted that betting is illegal in many states and warned TV channels and OTT players of penalty in case of violation. However, the amount of penalty was not mentioned in the advisory, then.

The government has been cracking down on betting platforms for some time now. In February, the Indian government banned 138 Chinese betting apps as the apps in question were flouting Section 69 of the IT Act. The Centre also directed Google to stop overseas online betting platforms, such as Betway and 1xBet, from marketing their ads in the country late last year.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) also seized INR 212.91 Cr till December 2022 in connection with money laundering probes involving online gambling platforms.