Leading ‘prohibited online gambling platforms’ in India see over 5.8 B brows through in simply year: Record
Unlawful online gaming in India gets on the surge, with an estimated 5.8 billion visits to the leading 15 systems and their mirror sites between April 2025 and March 2025, as drivers make use of spaces in legislation and smartly sidestep the regulations which are in place.
According to an evaluation by CUTS International, the billions in sees are simply those which can be tracked and are connected to the leading 15 unlawful gambling systems and 40 of their mirror websites. These include 1xBet, Parimatch, Risk, Fairplay and BaterBet.
One surprising figure is that website traffic share for Parimatch ‘also outranked commonly utilized systems such as amazon.in, Wikipedia.org, google.co.in, x.com linkedin.com, quora.com, and reddit.com’.
In a ranking of one of the most preferred domain names 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 website traffic share of 1.06 percent.you can find more here 1xbet slot myanmar from Our Articles
The findings detailed in ‘Dealing with the Probabilities: A Policy Plan for Curbing Illegal Online Gambling in India’ highlight not just the marketplace range, however also how individuals are driven to prohibited gambling platforms in India, how they get users, payment systems that facilitate them and the regulatory gaps and obstacles that exist.
Acquiring individuals
Direct website traffic has shown to be the biggest resource of individual engagement for illegal on-line betting in India, with some 3.57 billion check outs (or 66 percent of overall website traffic) signed up throughout the April 2025-March 2025 period. This consists of users by hand going into Links, using book marks or copying web links from personal networks.
The success of this is based upon ‘an illusion of dependability’, ‘unwanted advertising and marketing techniques’, ‘exclusive channel’ circulation (such as via WhatsApp or Telegram), mass media advertising (including TV and signboard adverts), star recommendations and word-of mouth referrals.
Browse web traffic brought in some 652.2 million check outs, with Google having 97 percent market share in this respect. This triggers problems over the reality that unlawful gambling platforms ‘are efficiently indexed and rated high in search engine result, aided by aggressive SEO methods and weak enforcement by online search engine’.
Referral website traffic, meanwhile, generated some 810.43 million gos to – consisting of affiliates, links, straight media acquiring or information protection traffic. 1xBet was attended have the biggest dependency of the 15 drivers, obtaining 22.37 percent of its traffic from the network.
Social media site contributed 177.61 million gos to, ‘although the real quantity could be substantially greater due to untracked in-app mobile redirection’. Systems like YouTube, Reddit, Instagram and Facebook, X and WhatsApp were highlighted. However enforcement of this is stymied as ‘the social media sites network mirrors a mix of peer-driven discovery and mathematical promotion and boosting, posturing a complex enforcement challenge’.
Entirely, prohibited betting platforms ‘grow straight connections with customers, optimize their search engine existence, deploy numerous mirror sites to continue to be obtainable, and utilize affiliates and social media sites to keep new users coming Simply obstructing one URL or advertisement channel has limited effect when drivers can shift domains and take advantage of an all set audience that actively seeks them out’.
Other techniques, such as surrogate advertising and marketing – using spin-off entities that ‘imitate the branding, logos and names of prominent unlawful gaming platforms’, using brand ambassadors and physical marketing – billboards and advertisements, are also proving highly efficient within out to an audience that authorities would hope is not urged to bet unlawfully.
Barriers
One of the primary reasons for users selecting to gamble on prohibited gaming systems in India is the high tax obligation on down payments – 28 percent – which ‘substantially minimize the worth customers get’, triggering individual to ‘choose unlawful platforms to stay clear of such costs and redirect the cost savings right into lucrative monetary rewards, thereby raising their appeal’.
This is coupled with the ‘immersive and risky experiences’ that prohibited systems use.
The report indicates that ‘systems such as Stake and 1xBet incorporate emotional style methods – such as variable reward systems, ‘near-miss impacts’, and gamified notices – that additional manipulate cognitive predispositions and advertise uncontrollable involvement’.
This is amplified by ‘higher-risk wagering’ facilitated by these platforms, ‘which amplifies enjoyment and adventure’.
This boosts the danger of ‘elevated levels of anxiety, clinical depression, and mental illness’, especially in the absence of consumer security devices and harm-reduction mechanisms.
Repayments
One way that regulatory authorities can pursue these prohibited platforms is by targeting settlement systems.
The report identifies the United Repayments User Interface (UPI) system as the ‘primary channel for handling deposits on prohibited betting platforms. In October of 2025, the nation’s Ministry of Home Matters launched an advising warning about ‘prohibited electronic repayment portals’, which the record notes are ‘relying on burro or rented out accounts’ and are ‘used as a solution for gathering down payments on prohibited systems, including wagering and fake financial investment rip-offs’. Mule accounts ‘are typically sourced through platforms like Telegram and Facebook and are remotely managed from abroad’.
‘There is no sign that these procedures have actually decreased. On the contrary the large quantity of financial activity suggests that current enforcement efforts versus these organizations have actually been mostly inadequate’.
Digital pocketbooks – such as Astropay, Neteller and Skrill, and cryptocurrencies – Bitcoin, Tether, Ethereum etc, have actually additionally verified extremely efficient to prevent guidelines and even ‘bypass the Indian monetary system completely’.
Present structure
‘The existing Indian regulative structure on gaming, wagering and video games of skill is characterized by a disjointed yet progressively evolving regulatory landscape that mirrors the nation’s colonial lawful heritage along with modern-day electronic imperatives’.
The key legal instrument in position is the Public Gaming Act of 1867, ‘a law that was conceived long prior to the advent of the internet’.
The record highlights 10 various other legislations, standards or advisories that control gambling tasks in the nation – both online and land-based (with legal online casino betting restricted to Goa and Sikkim, neither of which ‘have actually approved licensing applications from online gambling establishments’).
Recommendations
The record breaks down feasible actions into five main points:
- Enhancing economic oversight: ‘codifying settlement blocking in law connecting to illegal operators’ and ‘launching dedicated, extensive research to better map vulnerabilities and educate targeted treatments’
- Improving obstructing measures: utilizing ‘innovative digital enforcement modern technologies’ such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to ‘recognize and pre-emptively block unauthorized online platforms’
- Strengthening collaborations with Large Technology: establishing ‘institutional collaborations with significant tech middlemans – social networks, internet search engine, and advertisement networks – to suppress the exposure and promotion of unlawful gambling’
- Enhancing consumer security: making use of public understanding projects that ‘clearly connect the individual and social injuries of prohibited gaming
- Leveraging behavioral insights and public recognition: job to ‘understand the behavior vehicle drivers and user motivations that maintain demand’
The report itself does not disparage gambling itself. Still, it elevates solid problems about a substantial absence of regulation and the advanced strategies that prohibited online drivers can employ to target the Indian customer, prompting quick renovation to avoid possible damage.