NEW DELHI: Following up on an advisory issued in June, the Information & Broadcasting Ministry on Monday again issued advisories to digital publishers, OTT platforms and private satellite television channels, warning them to refrain from publishing advertisements of online betting platforms.
The I&B ministry, in its fresh advisory, said it was observed that promotional content and advertisements of betting platforms are still visible on certain digital news platforms and OTT platforms, Hindustan Times reports. The government also said that some online offshore betting platforms have started using news websites as a surrogate product to advertise betting platforms on digital media.
Reiterating that betting and gambling is an illegal activity in most parts of India, the ministry said advertisements of online offshore betting and gambling platforms are prohibited.
The ministry pointed out that with respect to the advertisements of the surrogate news websites run by the online betting platforms, the logos of the concerned news websites are similar to those betting platforms, which are not registered with any legal authorities.
“Accordingly. the online oflshore betting platforms appear to be promoting betting and gambling under the garb of news as surrogate advertising. In this regard, the Department of Consumer Affairs has also informed that online betting platforms have been advertising themselves as professional sports blogs, sports news websites, cte. while providing an indicative list of online betting platforms which are using news for surrogate advertising,” the government advisory, accessed by HT, reads.
The ministry has categorically asked the news websites and OTT platforms to refrain from broadcasting ads of online betting platforms or their surrogate news websites.
Further, in its fresh advisories to private channels, the I&B ministry made clear that it was aware that some online offshore betting platforms have started using news websites as a surrogate product to advertise their betting platforms on TV channels.
The Centre reminded that betting and gambling is illegal in most parts of India, also pointing out that ads of surrogate websites run by these betting platforms having the identical logos as their parent company were run on the TV channels as they are not registered with any legal authority under the Indian law.
“In this regard, the Department of Consumer Affairs has also informed that online betting platforms have been advertising themselves as professional sports blogs, sports news websites, etc. while providing an indicative list of online betting platforms which are using news for surrogate advertising”, the government said.
“Contravention/violation of the above may invite penal action under the applicable laws”, the ministry warned.
