On Monday, the authorities issued advisories to digital publishers, OTT platforms, and private satellite television channels asking them to stop running advertisements for online betting sites.

The Narendra Modi administration on Monday issued warnings to online publishers, OTT services, and private satellite television networks requesting that they not run advertisements for online betting sites.

On particular digital news platforms and OTT platforms, promotional material and advertising for betting platforms are still there, according to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting's warning. The government claims that some offshore betting companies have started utilising news websites as stand-in items to promote betting companies on digital media.

The ministry reiterated that gambling and betting are illegal in the majority of India and claimed it is forbidden to advertise foreign online betting and gambling sites.

The ministry drew attention to the fact that, the surrogate news websites operated by online betting platforms share logos with betting platforms that are not officially registered with any regulatory bodies.

"Accordingly, online offshore betting platforms appear to be promoting betting and gambling as surrogate advertising under the guise of news." 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, et cetera," the government added.

The ministry has expressly requested that OTT platforms and news websites refrain from airing advertisements for online betting firms or their stand-in news websites.

Additionally, according to the I&B ministry's advice to private channels, certain offshore online betting platforms have started utilising news websites as a stand-in for their actual products while promoting those platforms on TV.

The Center reminded us that gambling and betting are prohibited in most of India and that TV channels regularly aired advertisements for subsidiary websites operated by these betting platforms with logos that were identical to those of their parent companies, despite the fact that they were not registered with any regulatory body as required by Indian law.