7,800 websites blocked, but MeitY struggles to curb offshore gambling and betting in India

Even as the government claimed to have blocked 242 illegal betting and gambling website links, taking the cumulative number of such websites shut down to over 7,800, offshore betting platforms continue to see rising traffic and growing user engagement from India, underscoring widening gaps in enforcement and regulatory design.

Officials from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had said the latest action was part of an ongoing crackdown against unlawful online gaming platforms. However, traffic data, industry estimates, and a consumer survey suggest that some of the world’s most notorious offshore betting companies have not only survived the blocks but expanded their Indian user base through mirror websites, VPN usage, and aggressive digital promotion.

Traffic metrics accessed by Storyboard18 show that several blocked or restricted betting brands continue to attract hundreds of thousands of visits from India each month. For instance, one mirrored version of 1xbet recorded around 228,000 monthly visits from India between October and December 2025. A mirrored Parimatch site saw nearly 300,000 monthly visits during the same period.

Global betting platform Stake reported worldwide visits of 234.3 million during the quarter, with India contributing 13.48% of total traffic—second only to Canada at 26.07%. Fairplay, another offshore operator, logged over 225,000 global visits in the October–December 2025 period, with India accounting for a staggering 88.09% of the total traffic, followed distantly by the US, UAE and Indonesia.

“These numbers make it clear that blocking URLs is not stopping the underlying activity,” said a senior executive at a domestic gaming company, requesting anonymity. “It’s creating a whack-a-mole situation where illegal operators regenerate domains within hours.”

Regulatory vacuum and enforcement challenges

Legal experts point out that the enforcement claims come amid regulatory uncertainty. Jay Sayta, a technology and gaming lawyer, noted that Promotion and Rregulation of Online Gaming Act,2025 has still not been formally brought into force, raising questions about the legal basis of recent blocks.

“Five months have elapsed but PROGA has not been brought into force yet. The central government claims to have blocked 242 gambling websites recently and over 7,800 over the years, but the fact remains that there are thousands of such illegal betting websites still operating and flourishing,” Sayta said.

He added that offshore operators quickly adapt. “Offshore illegal betting websites easily start mirror websites with similar domain names within hours of being blocked, without their business being significantly impacted.”

Sayta emphasised the need for continuous surveillance rather than episodic action. “Real-time monitoring and daily enforcement is required to stop illegal offshore betting and promotional activities happening on social media, especially on Instagram and Telegram,” he said. “International experience shows that no matter how strict enforcement is, illegal betting is almost impossible to eliminate completely. Allowing regulated skill-based games domestically would reduce this leakage.”

Industry bodies echoed similar concerns. Amrit Kiran Singh, President of the Skill Online Games Institute (SOGI), said enforcement had failed to curb user demand.

“Proof of the pudding is in the eating. Indian gamers continue to play unabated. No one is complaining,” Singh said. “The only victims of this ill-advised ban are honest Indian gaming companies. The only gainers are Chinese gaming companies operating from locations such as Cyprus and Estonia.”

Singh described bans as “lazy governance,” drawing parallels with alcohol prohibition in Bihar and Gujarat. “VPNs and domain farming make it impossible to block platforms. Crypto and mule accounts facilitate all kinds of monetary transactions,” he said.

Ban-driven migration to offshore platforms

A new survey by CUTS International provides further evidence that enforcement actions and legislative prohibitions may be producing unintended consequences. The survey, conducted among 1,000 former online real money gaming (RMG) users in Delhi NCR, reveals a sharp migration toward offshore betting platforms following India’s prohibition on online real money games.

The study examined behavioural patterns before and after the Prohibition and Regulation of Online Gaming Act (PROGA) was passed by Parliament. Based on self-reported responses, the survey analysed access trends, spending behaviour, time spent on platforms, and shifts toward offshore betting websites.

According to the findings, usage of offshore betting platforms rose from 68.3% before the ban to 82% after it, a jump of 13.7 percentage points. Notably, one in four surveyed users said they began using offshore betting apps only after the ban came into effect. While 11% discontinued usage, 57.3% continued post-ban, indicating a statistically significant and sustained shift.

Spending patterns also escalated sharply. The share of offshore users spending between ₹5,000 and ₹9,999 per month surged from 7.6% pre-ban to 26.2% post-ban. An additional 13.5% now spend over ₹10,000 per month—a spending category that did not exist prior to the ban.

Daily engagement rose dramatically as well. Before the prohibition, only 3.4% of users accessed offshore platforms daily. Post-ban, that figure jumped to 42%. Time spent per session also increased, with users engaging for over two hours per session rising from 3.4% pre-ban to 44%.

“These findings show that the ban did not reduce gaming or betting behaviour—it merely pushed users into darker, less regulated corners of the internet,” said a policy researcher familiar with the survey.

A former MeitY official, speaking on condition of anonymity, was even more blunt. “MeitY is measuring success by counting blocked URLs, not by outcomes. If 80% of users are still accessing offshore platforms, the policy has failed, regardless of how many links are blocked.”

Another real money gaming industry executive said, “Without payment-level controls, ad ecosystem accountability, and cooperation from social media platforms, blocking websites is cosmetic. It creates good headlines but achieves very little on the ground.”

As India debates its long-term gaming and betting framework, the data suggests that enforcement without regulation may be strengthening the very offshore operators it seeks to eliminate—at the cost of domestic companies, consumer safety, and tax revenues.