Assets linked to online cricket betting can be treated as "proceeds of crime" and seized by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), even though betting itself is not a scheduled offence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the Delhi High Court has held.
The ruling came in a case involving a large betting network that operated through Betfair.com and allegedly generated about INR 2,400 Cr. The ED told the court that the network relied on forged documents, fake SIM cards and hawala channels, which are scheduled offences under the money laundering act.
Using unlawful methods to run the betting operation makes the money and property generated through it tainted, the court said.
The petitioners had challenged ED's provisional attachment orders, arguing that betting is not a predicate offence and therefore the attached assets could not be considered proceeds of crime.
The court rejected this and said the illegal betting racket was enabled by criminal acts such as cheating and forgery, and the profits built on those acts fall squarely under the PMLA.
The judgement comes at a time when the ED is tightening its scrutiny of online betting, offshore gaming platforms, and real-money gaming (RMG) firms in India.
Just days earlier, the agency froze assets of INR 523 Cr linked to WinZO, Gameskraft and Pocket52 parent Nirdesa Networks. This included INR 505 Cr of WinZO's bank balances, FDs, bonds and mutual funds, and eight escrow accounts of Gameskraft holding INR 18.57 Cr.
The action followed multiple FIRs alleging cheating, misuse of PAN details, impersonation, blocked user accounts and fraudulent KYC practices on WinZO. The ED also accused the platform of continuing RMG operations abroad through its Indian system despite the ban on online real-money gaming in India. Officials claimed that about INR 43 Cr of dues or user refunds was retained by the company.
The ED's parallel probes into Pocket52 and Gameskraft were also triggered by serious allegations. Pocket52 was accused of manipulating game outcomes, restricting withdrawals and removing features like hand history. One complainant claimed losses of more than INR 3 Cr due to suspected rigging.
Gameskraft, according to a complaint, kept over INR 30 Cr in escrow accounts even after the nationwide ban under the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, enacted on August 22.
Celebrity Endorsements Under Lens
Offshore betting networks are also under the ED scanner for some time. Earlier this month, the agency attached INR 11.14 Cr of assets belonging to cricketers Suresh Raina and Shikhar Dhawan over their endorsements for illegal betting platform 1xBet. The ED said their payments were layered through foreign entities to disguise their source.
Investigators found that 1xBet collected deposits from Indian users through more than 6,000 mule accounts, routing the money through multiple payment gateways that allegedly onboarded merchants without due KYC.
This forms part of the ED's broader scrutiny of celebrity endorsements for offshore betting apps such as FairPlay, Parimatch, Lotus365, A23, JeetWin and Junglee Rummy. The agency has questioned public figures such as Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Sonu Sood, and Rana Daggubati.
Regulators, too, have repeatedly warned against promoting such platforms. The CCPA issued advisories to celebrities and influencers, while the IT ministry has blocked dozens of offshore betting apps over the last two years.