Reality of Cricket Betting Apps

Let me tell you some BREATHTAKING news… This is a clip from last year’s India vs. Pakistan T20 match for the Asia Cup. On the screen, you can see Yuvraj Singh holding a bat and flashing a wide smile. He’s promoting 1x***, a "professional sportsblog”. Even many Instagram influencers promote such shady apps, claiming how they can help you earn millions. Not just Instagram influencers but even actors like Rajpal Yadav have been seen promoting these apps. These apps go by bizarre names such as Ambani***, Adani***, and Namo***. These apps claim they’re the country’s only licensed sports Be***** app. An investigation by the Sunday Times revealed that 1x*** has been promoting Be***** in children’s sports. This resulted in the company being blacklisted by Britain’s Gambling Commission, following which many English Premier League football clubs ended their sponsorship deals with 1x***. Despite all this, the company has been marketing aggressively in India. 1x*** is one of many doing this. Let’s talk about ‘Fa******.’ It claims to be a news website. Many Indian celebrities have promoted the company. It claims to be ‘India’s best sporting app.’ Another such company sent me multiple emails to sign me up for a brand sponsorship deal. This app is on the list of around 140 apps banned by the government of India. Ga****** and Be***** are illegal in India. This means that such companies can’t advertise their products. But they have come up with creative ways to advertise themselves and attract Indian customers. The IPL has begun. Thus, the companies have been marketing themselves more aggressively. That’s what I want to discuss in this video —how these companies advertise and operate their illegal business. How do these companies differ from fantasy apps like Dream11 and MPL? All these companies have been capitalizing on the biggest Indian religion —cricket. Before we learn more about these companies, let's briefly look at the evolution of gambling in India. This is a scene from Mahabharata, where Yudhisthira wagers Draupadi and his kingdom during a game of dice against the Kauravas. This shows that be***** and gambling date back to the past in India. Mahabharata, Ramayana, and Arthashastra mention gambling in various manners. During the Mughal rule, there existed a system of state-controlled gambling houses known as "satta bazaars." These houses were supervised by government officials. They offered various forms of gambling, including dice games and card games. However, the Mughals regulated gambling to prevent excessive losses. For example, Akbar issued a rule in 1579 for the popular dice game—Chaupar —that limited the amount of money that could be wagered in a single game. In colonial India, the British banned gambling by enacting the Public Gambling Act in 1867. This deemed gambling houses illegal. However, after independence, different states began enacting their own laws to regulate gambling. While some banned gambling completely, other states like Kerala legalized lotteries conducted by licensed operators. In fact, some state governments run lotteries and generate revenue through them. Gambling and be***** companies promise instant results. But you’ll hardly ever benefit from them. One app that offers real instant results is MobiKwik. Using MobiKwik, you can pay credit card bills at lightning-fast speed. It helps you settle bills in under 30 seconds. Moreover, MobiKwik offers 1% cashback every time you use the app to pay credit card bills. Most apps offer you chips or points for rewards. But MobiKwik offers real cashback. You can use the app's spending analytics feature to get an insight into your spending habits. It also offers timely reminders so you don’t miss a due date. MobiKwik supports all credit cards, making it a one-stop solution for credit card bills. The app’s ‘auto fetch’ feature displays all the bills in one place and you can settle them all using four clicks. What are you waiting for? Click the link in the description, download the app, and pay your credit card bills in a jiffy. Also, by downloading the app through the link you will be supporting us directly and helping us make more such informative videos. In 1957, the Supreme Court made a landmark ruling for the ‘State of Bombay v. R.M.D. Chamarbaugwala’ case. The defendant argued that his business of ‘rummy’ should be exempt from the ban because it was not a game of chance but a game of skill. Now, what’s the difference? The difference is very crucial. This debate isn’t new. Back in the 16th century, the English court decided that there was a distinction between the games of skill and the games of chance. For instance, cricket requires skills, while chance plays only a trivial role. But for Snake & Ladder, chance matters more than one’s skills. R.M.D. Chamarbaugwala's argued that games where skills outplayed chance, should be exempted from the ban. And the Supreme Court upheld his argument in 1957 by ruling that games requiring skills would be exempted from the ban. This ruling of 1957 was then used by the lower courts to decide what games should be exempted from or put under the ban. For instance, in 1996, the Supreme Court examined whether be***** on horse races was a game of skill or chance. The Court found that the horse race be***** was a game of skill because it required the be**or to have knowledge of the horses, track conditions, and other relevant factors. Following the Supreme Court ruling, several states legalized horse race be*****. But we must remember that the exact criteria for making a distinction are complex as they involve a close examination of the nature of skills and chance involved in the game. Therefore, apps like Dream11 and MPL —also known as fantasy games— are considered games of skill because they require you to build a team with a set budget. The companies argue that one must be skilled in the knowledge of players and teams to earn money on the platform. That’s why these apps are legal in India. In contrast, be***** apps such as 1x*** and Fairplay are illegal because of the greater percentage of chance/luck involved in the games. In 2019, Dream 11 became the country's first gaming start-up to become a unicorn. Soon, MPL caught up as well. In fact, the rising popularity of fantasy games prompted Ashneer Grover to launch a new startup. Fantasy sports have been popular in other countries for a long time. I remember playing Fantasy Premier League with my friends. We tried to create the best team in the English Premier League to earn points. Dream 11 works with the same concept. This concept was introduced to India back in 2001 by ESPN with a game called Super Selector. The game required users to select a team. The winner would earn points but no monetary rewards. Their name would be announced on TV at the end of the tournament. Dream 11 and MPL uses the concept of a ‘cash pool.’ Suppose 100 users chip in ₹10. The cash pool is now worth ₹1000. Now, the winners are given ₹500, ₹300, and ₹200, respectively, This was just an example. Basically, the winners go home with the cash pool. Many want these fantasy apps banned. They argue that these fantasy apps involve risks similar to be***** apps. They believe these apps undermine skills by arguing that only a few players use skills while most lose money to chance. On the other hand, some argue that skills are pivotal to acing these games. This even improves the participation of fans in the sport. Their attachment to the players and the sport deepens. We could argue more about ethics here. But what’s clear is that these apps are legal according to Indian law. On the other hand, websites like Fairplay and 1x*** are illegal. Most of these companies can’t be prosecuted because the Public Gambling Act, 1867, offers no distinction between online and physical be****. Obviously, the Act was created without keeping the internet in mind. Be***** companies use this loophole to prove their legality. Now, you could argue that one must be skilled to put a bet on a team. One must be familiar with players, venue, etc. But Indian law states that games involve binary outcomes —i.e., games where you can either win or lose. But for games like Dream 11, multiple criteria are used, leading to multiple outcomes. Thus, Dream 11 is categorized as a game of skill. Moreover, Dream 11 and MPL require you to make multiple decisions regarding the budget and position of the players. Meanwhile, on a be***** app, you must make only one decision —which team to bet your money on. Thus, Indian laws interpret these be***** games as games of chance. How do the be***** apps like 1x***, Fair****, and Lotus*** operate in India? Let’s dig into it. Users must first create an account to place be** on these websites. When you sign up for 1x***, you receive an OTP in Russian and not in English as this company originated in Russia. Once logged in, you can start placing be** on sports ranging from cricket, kabaddi, volleyball, football, and basketball to tennis. Let's assume you want to place a b** on Gujarat Titans vs. CSK match. The company will offer you odds of the outcomes. Suppose the odds for CSK are 5/4. This means that for every INR 4 you bet on CSK’s win, you receive INR 5 in return. To lure more customers, these be***** websites offer a matched deposit bonus. Basically, if you start with INR 500, the company doubles the amount by adding another INR 1000. Thus, the user can b** more money. The companies even accept payment through UPI. When journalist Jaideep Vaidya tried to deposit money using UPI, he was given a random UPI address that didn’t match the company’s name. He repeated the process multiple times and was given a new UPI address every time. Why is that? Simply because these companies aren't registered in India. They don’t have a UPI address nor pay taxes in India. They use illegal accounts to collect money from users. How do these companies run their business? —Using offshore entities. Offshore entities are companies registered in tiny countries considered tax havens. For example, Malta and certain countries in the Caribbean islands. These countries don’t levy a corporate tax and allow foreign companies to set up their businesses easily. Companies are exempted from disclosing their finances and extensive legal work. In short, the companies are given free reins in these countries. For instance, 1x*** is registered in Cyprus. Similarly, Fair**** is registered in Curacao, an island country in the Caribbean Sea. These companies use clever tricks to exploit the grey area in Indian law to operate in India. These companies have been using surrogate advertising. Using this strategy, companies attract customers without violating the law. Remember this ad? It features Ranbir Kapoor, Mary Kom, Saina Nehwal, and Kiara Advani promoting Fair*** News. The company distorts its identity and advertises itself as a news website. Alcohol companies use the same strategy. According to the law, the advertisement of alcohol is prohibited. So the companies cloak themselves as soda and water-bottle sellers. This gets even crazier. Take the case of Dafanews, a news website set up by the be***** app Dafa***. The company signed a contract with Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association as the title sponsor of the Bangalore Open. Let's examine the case of Be**ay, which was penalized by the UK Gambling Commission for advertising gambling to young children. Nevertheless, it was the title sponsor of the South African T20 tournament. Mumbai Indians, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Delhi Capitals, and Kolkata Knight Riders all have stakes in this league. But, why is Be**ay supporting a league in South Africa? It’s aware of the popularity of cricket in India. By placing an ad in the league, the company hopes to attract Indian cricket enthusiasts by running ads in the league. According to the Consumer Protection Act, companies can't indulge in surrogate advertising in India. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting even issued an advisory asking Indian TV channels to refrain from advertising be***** companies. But this didn’t have any effect. When Indian Express inquired Hotstar, SonyLiv, and Yuvraj Singh regarding this matter, they declined to comment. These companies have even begun advertising themselves offline. This raises a question: who pays the price? –The Indian consumers. Actually, gambling websites are banned under the Indian IT Act. Apart from gambling, these companies offer features that can be categorized as the ‘game of skills’. Some companies fuse features that are deemed legal under Indian law. This puzzles the government when determining the companies’ legality. For instance, Fair*** offers gambling, which is illegal, and fantasy games, which are legal in India. But no decisive action is taken against these companies. The authorities are not proactive in this matter. Second, gaming and gambling fall under the jurisdiction of the state governments and not the Centre. None of these governments take the initiative to clamp down on these websites. For example, the Tamil Nadu government tried banning online Rummy, but the governor rejected its plea, saying the state assembly has no authority in this matter. That’s why sports be***** websites continue to operate in India. Lawyer Seshank Shekar Rayaprolu suggests that these websites assume that Indian authorities will never come after them. He compares these be***** sites with po** websites, which operate outside of India but still find a great user base in the country. Moreover, these companies cleverly put the entire onus of legality on the users themselves. For example, Fair**** states on its website, “…the legality of be***** depends on your location.” You'll come across this message on Bhai**** website, "If you're from Telangana, Orissa, Assam, Sikkim, and Nagaland..." "Please leave the website immediately." Why did the website mention these states? It could be because the laws of these states are aggressive on the be***** websites. This way, the companies shift the responsibility of legality onto the users. There’s not enough research on the consequences of be***** on Indian users. Although we have documented evidence from countries like the US, where be***** and gambling are legal. This New York Times article shows how 37-year-old Steven Delaney got hooked on online sports be***** and lost all his savings. The problem is so bad in the US that nearly 2% of Americans are believed to be addicted to gambling. Last year, a 39-year-old woman ki**** herself in Tamil Nadu after she learned that her husband Suresh had lost the money she had saved for her son's school fees to an online rummy game. In another incident, a woman from Hyderabad was in for a shock when she found INR 36 lakh missing from her bank accounts. Where did the money go? Her son blew it off on a gambling app. Initially, her son lost INR 10,000. He kept putting in more money to recover the amount until he blew off INR 36 lakhs. Research has shown excessive sports be***** could lead to depression, anxiety, and stress. Sports be***** can also encourage individuals to take greater risks in their personal and professional lives. This can have negative consequences. We need to keep these two things in mind: First, the websites shift the responsibility of checking the legality of the game to the users. Second, these apps and websites are definitely illegal. Yet these companies somehow hire celebrities to promote themselves and even sponsor reputable tournaments like the Aisa Cup. What does this show about our society? If you found this video informative, please share it with your friends and spread awareness. If you liked this video, please subscribe to the channel. If you liked this video, I recommend you watch this video in which I discussed Bollywood songs –Why is the quality of Bollywood songs going down? Do check it out. Don't forget to check out MobiKwik. The link's in the description.