Gambling advertising continues, celebrities, influencers openly flout govt advisory

Over a dozen celebrities, including top level actors, cricketers and other macro and mid-tier influencers are in potential violation of an advisory issued by the government of India in October as they are continuing to advertise for betting websites and apps and their surrogate news sites.

In October, the Information and & Broadcasting Ministry prohibited online betting ads and surrogates on television, digital platforms. But several large scale influencers like cricket commentators Sanjay Manjrekar, Aakash Chopra and several others have been repeatedly advertising for online gambling companies like Parimatch News and Betway.

In an Instagram post video posted on November 9, over a month after the ministry issued its advisory, actors Ranbir Kapoor, Kiara Advani, Mithali Raj, Saina Nehwal, and Mary Kom can still be seen advertising for company Fairplay.

This week, actor Esha Gupta was signed on as online betting app Khelraja’s brand ambassador. Similarly, influencers Rannvijay Singh Singha and Kevin Pietersen are seen advertising on Betway’s homepage, while others like Sanjay Manjrekar and Aakash Chopra are seeing advertising for Parimatch News and Betway on their social media handles.

The ministry named companies Fairplay, PariMatch, Betway, Wolf 777, and 1xBet. Actors and sports professionals like Ranbir Kapoor, Kiara Advani, Sunil Narine, Mithali Raj, Eoin Morgan, Saina Nehwal, and Mary Kom can still be seen on Fairplay News homepage.

Roland Lander, CEO of the All India Gaming Federation said, the body is trying to create awareness against the menace of illegal offshore gambling websites. “One of the most problematic aspects of these offshore websites is how they promote and advertise their illegal products. We are seeing prominent influencers -- who come from sports and entertainment backgrounds -- endorsing these products,” he said.

For this, the government issued two advisories between June and October to private TV channels and digital news publishers and OTT platforms, asking them to refrain from showing advertisements, including surrogate ads, of online betting sites, categorising them as those that can cause a significant financial and socio-economic risk for consumers. The companies had been given two weeks to remove these ads from being broadcasted.

According to industry estimates, the withdrawal of these ads has cost advertisers on TV and other broadcasters at least ₹1,500 crore a year.

The ministry had also noted that online offshore betting platforms were using surrogate news websites with logos that had a striking resemblance to their news counterparts and that neither the betting websites or the platforms had been registered by any legal authority in India.

The advisory, though, doesn’t yet put a restriction on the influencers, many feel it is the moral responsibility of influencers to refrain from advertising.

Under the Consumer Protection Act, an influencer must take the moral responsibility of the product they are promoting since advertising for an illegal and misleading product is also considered illegal. “Gambling is an illegal activity in most states in India and so it is misleading to endorse the same as a legitimate product or service. Since they are promoting something patently illegal, the CCPA can ideally take action against them. Further the government has to power to issue guideline on this issue to influencers as direct or surrogate ads of illegal products are not allowed,” said Delhi-based tech policy and legal consultant Dhruv Garg.

He said that illegal offshore gambling companies largely use three methods to interact with potential customers. Firstly, through capturing attention of unsuspecting consumers using advertisements. Secondly, they use dubious financial channels to illicit huge sums of money from the consumers. And lastly, they circumvent government blocking through an enormous number of mirror websites.

At least the access to attention of consumer can be stopped when broadcasters and those advertising their products stop giving such offshore illegal websites any advertising real estate.

Under the Constitution of India, betting and gambling is under the purview of state governments. “If something is clearly illegal, like in this case -- a game of chance -- how can such an illegal activity be allowed to function so blatantly in any domain?” asked Garg.

Manisha Kapoor, the chief executive officer of self regulatory body, The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), told Mint that these posts seem to be in potential violation of the guidelines of CCPA and fall under the category of advertisements that are prohibited by law. “Gambling isn’t allowed by law in most parts of India. The I&B ministry has been taking cognizance of violations. Also, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs is a nodal ministry for all advertising related issues and they could also look into this.”

ASCI, has specific guidelines on influencers where they have to make disclosures on material connections and has a tool to monitor these. It is also taking up cases of reports on influencer violations and at least 30% of all the cases it took up last year pertained to these influencers.

“Influencers and other kinds of endorsers are covered under the Consumer Protection Act 2021, there are penalties laid out in the law itself. But because there is no central act related to gambling, it being a state subject, there may be some lack of clarity on how some of these issues are being interpreted amongst regulators, influencers and platforms.”

Landers of AIGF added that there are multiple avenues that still need the attention of the government where offshore operators are pumping big money and advertising for instance their websites or on social media accounts.

“Even the sponsorship of an Indian sporting leagues and their franchise teams as well as the use of various influencers by illegal offshore operators is the next big concern. We need the government, sports leagues rights owners/sports federations and influencers to join hands to curb access of such unscrupulous sponsors to unsuspecting Indian consumers,” he added.