Indian Ministry Opposes Gambling Adverts Ahead of Cricket World Cup
The opening of the Asia Cup on 31 August coincides with the Cricket Cup on 5 October.
As the cricket world heads towards the much-awaited Asia Cup and the men’s ODI World Cup, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting India has introduced a new set of guidelines strictly preventing the media, online gambling intermediaries and social media platforms from displaying advertisements or advertising on the Internet. The Ministry has released a new series of guidelines strictly warning the media, online advertising intermediaries and social media platforms not to show advertising or promotional content associated with online gambling in any form.
Of course, large-scale sporting events that attract a lot of fans use advertising to let as many people as possible know about upcoming events. In this situation, the government is sounding the alarm about this, since in their opinion there is more and more advertising. The ministry’s appeal points to the fact that this process with advertising especially on cricket is becoming quite intrusive and there is a lot of it in recent times. It is evident that the governing bodies are concerned that such advertising may have a negative impact on the masses, citing examples of money laundering networks associated with such activities.
Serious damage, both financially and socio-economically, could be caused to the country’s overall infrastructure, which could particularly affect the younger generation, the ministry said. The guidelines that came out in July and October 2022, as well as in April prior to the Indian Premier League (IPL), are once again coming out from the government side with the message that as they had said earlier, betting activities are illegal, and especially propaganda through all media, which also crosses the line of legitimacy of the action. According to government policy, online gaming is illegal in the country. Promotions and anything mentioning the gaming industry are more than illegal according to the government. The Information Technology Rules and the Consumer Protection Act have been invoked here.
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