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The Union government blocked 242 “illegal betting and gambling” sites on Friday (January 16, 2026), an official said. That brings the total such sites blocked under this category, the official said, to 7,800. All real money gaming and gambling alike has been outlawed by the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025.
That law, which banned all games where users could put money in with a hope of winning (or losing) their deposits, came as a surprise, and was pushed through Parliament in a matter of days. Former industry executives and lawyers had long advocated against a total ban, arguing that offshore and illegal betting and gambling platforms would fill the vacuum.
It is unclear to what extent illegal betting sites have been operating and frequented by Indian users, but even conservative estimates by former representatives speaking anonymously peg the amount in the hundreds of crores of rupees per month. Even when real money gaming platforms were operating, industry-funded studies showed that illegal platforms — drawing users with a lack of GST, but with practically no oversight compared to above-board operators — were mushrooming.
Comment | The blurred lines between gaming and gambling
While the government has blocked many of these sites, with over 1,000 URLs targeted in 2024 alone, dealing with evasive illegal operators may turn out to be challenging, one 2025 report by the policy consultancy Digital India Foundation said, due to “URL switching,” where operators quickly move their sites to a different domain name.
Leveraging so-called “mule” accounts belonging on paper to ordinary Indians, funds are quickly siphoned out of the country, where they are harder for authorities to recover.
Published – January 16, 2026 09:59 pm IST
