The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has asked Google to comply with its advisory to refrain from publishing or broadcasting advertisements of online betting platforms or any surrogate product depicting them.
Some online offshore betting platforms had started using news websites as a surrogate product to advertise betting platforms on television channels. Online betting platforms were advertising themselves as professional sports blogs, sports news websites. As per the Ministry, advertisements of the news websites that were in fact surrogate promotions, did not appear to be in strict conformity with the laws.
The Guidelines for Prevention of Misleading Advertisements and Endorsements for Misleading Advertisements, 2022
- In exercise of the powers conferred by Section 18 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, the Central Consumer Protection Authority has issued the guidelines to provide for the prevention of false or misleading advertisements.
- No surrogate advertisement or indirect advertisement shall be made for goods or services whose advertising is otherwise prohibited or restricted by law, by circumventing such prohibition or restriction and portraying it to be an advertisement for other goods or services, the advertising of which is not prohibited or restricted by law.
- Criteria of deciding surrogate advertisement or indirect advertisement: (a) such advertisement indicates or suggests directly or indirectly to consumers that it is an advertisement for the goods, product or service whose advertising is prohibited or restricted by law; (b) such advertisement uses any brand name, logo, colour, layout and presentation associated with such goods, product or services whose advertisement is prohibited or restricted.
Related Laws
- Gaming: Law laid down by the Supreme Court in 1957 (Chamarbaugwala cases) - competitive games of skill are business activities protected under Article 19 (1) (g) of the Constitution. Rummy and horse racing have been classified by the courts as games of skill that do not come under the purview of gaming laws.
- Betting and Gambling: Gambling is a non-cognisable and bailable offense in India and is placed in the State list. The state government can exercise full control over betting and gambling practices in their State.
- India mainly puts the games into two broad categories to differentiate them. The two categories are that the game is either a Game of Chance or a Game of Skill.
- Games of Chance (Gambling): These are all those games that are played randomly. These games are based on luck. A person can play these games without prior knowledge or understanding. For instance, dice games, picking a number, etc. Such games are considered illegal in India.
- Games of Skill (Gaming): These are all those games that are played based on a person’s prior knowledge or experience of the game. A person will require skills such as analytical decision-making, logical thinking, capability, etc. Some games might also require some initial training to win. Such games are considered legal by most of the Indian states.