India’s gaming fans eye illegal sites after gambling ban
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India’s ban on online gambling has shuttered a billion-dollar industry serving hundreds of millions of people and torpedoed the sponsorship of the national cricket team.
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But players say those determined to bet will find a way to access overseas and unregulated websites while fans of fantasy sport apps can still play, although for prizes and not cash.
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Adarsh Sharma, an advertising professional who regularly played fantasy sports games, said offshore sites will “see a sudden boom” as Indian gamblers look for a fix.
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“A habit once formed cannot be broken easily,” he said. “It is an addiction and people will find ways to gamble.”
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India’s parliament last month passed a sweeping law banning online gambling after government figures showed companies had stripped $2.3 billion annually from 450 million people.
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Officials said the rapid spread of the platforms caused widespread financial distress, addiction and suicide, while also being linked to fraud, money laundering and financing terrorism.
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The law has been challenged in court by a top online card games platform.
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The ban impacts websites and apps for card games and fantasy sports — including India’s wildly popular fantasy cricket — with offenders now facing up to five years in prison.
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India’s online gamblers will have to use virtual private networks (VPNs) to trick overseas websites into thinking they are not in the country, and also use proxy credit cards for placing a bet.
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The whole process may seem too cumbersome for an average internet user, but gamblers know how to dodge the rules.
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“We have done this before and will do it again,” one fan told AFP, asking not to be named. “We will go back to our old ways of making money.”
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– ‘Love of cricket’ –
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Technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the law separates still-legal eSports “from betting, gambling and fantasy money games that exploit users with false promises of profit”.
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Dream11 — which boasts of being the world’s largest fantasy sports platform, with 260 million users — posted notices that “cash games and contests have been discontinued”.
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It now offers prizes such as cars, phones and fridges instead.
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Dream11 also pulled out of a $43 million deal with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), with its logo no longer splashed on the jerseys of the Indian players.
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Jamshed Noor, a butcher in the capital Delhi, said his top win had been 600 rupees (about $7), a day’s wage for a labourer.
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“We play it for the love of cricket,” said Noor. “Money was definitely an attraction, but I still play, despite money being off the table now.”
