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Online Betting Apps: Investigation has been initiated against such platforms on fraud of crores of rupees and theft of taxes.
Online Betting Apps: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has invited cricketers Robin Uthappa and Yuvraj Singh and actor Sonu Sood for questioning, increasing the scope of their investigation in the money laundering case related to illegal online betting. Officials said on Tuesday that Uthappa (39), Yuvraj (43) and Sood (52) have been asked to appear in the headquarters investigation unit of the agency in Delhi since next week and have been asked to record their statement under the Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in a case related to the platform called 1xbet. He told that Uthappa has been called on 22 September, Yuvraj Singh on 23 September and Sonu Sood on 24 September. The Federal Investigation Agency has also questioned former cricketers Suresh Raina and Shikhar Dhawan in the last few weeks as part of this investigation and former TMC MP and actress Mimi Chakraborty.
Bengali actor Ankush Hazra also stranded
Bengali actor Ankush Hazra (36) appeared before the ED on his prescribed summons in the case, while 1xbet’s India brand ambassador actress Urvashi Rautela (31) did not appear on his given date on Tuesday. Investigations have been initiated against such platforms on allegations of fraud of crores of rupees and allegedly stealing huge amounts of direct and indirect taxes. According to the company registered in Kurakao, 1xbet is a global recognized bookie who has been working in the betting industry for 18 years. According to the company, brand customers can bet on thousands of sports events. The company’s website and app is available in 70 languages. The email sent by PTI to seek response from 1xbet on the ED investigation received no response until this report was filed. Under this investigation, more players, film actors, influential people and celebrities are expected to be questioned by the agency in the coming days.
Email and paper documents also sought
The purpose of the ED investigation is to know from the famous celebrities how the said betting company contacted them to get support from them. Who is a nodal person for contact in India. Payment method (cash through hawala or banking channel) and place of payment (in India or abroad) etc. It is believed that the agency is recording the statements of cricketers and actors, asking them whether they knew that online betting and gaming were illegal in India. Along with this, the agency has also asked them to present the contracts made with 1xbet and copies of all related emails and paper documents. According to sources, the agency is also seeing what is the last use of funds taken by famous celebrities, so that any of them can be classified as income of crime under PMLA. The Central Government has recently banned online gaming with real money in India by bringing a law.
About 22 crore Indians were associated with betting apps
The ED has recently decided to start a “focused strategy” to investigate the financial crimes arising from the alleged illegal betting and gaming during a national meeting of its senior officials in Jammu and Kashmir. Apart from actors like Rana Daggubati, Prakash Raj, Vijay Devarakonda and Lakshmi Maanchu, some other online influential people were questioned under the anti -money laundering in a similar case being investigated by the agency’s Hyderabad office. Prior to the government ban, market analysis firms and investigative agencies had an estimate, about 22 crore Indian users in various online betting apps, half of which (about 11 million) were regular users. According to experts, the price of the online betting app market in India was estimated to be more than US $ 100 billion, which is growing at a rate of 30 percent. The government has told Parliament that it has issued 1,524 orders from 2022 to June 2025 to block online betting and gambling platforms.
