India’s crackdown on illegal online betting continues with six simultaneous raids across the Telangana region.
Indian authorities set the tone for their attitude towards online gambling, which is illegal in the country, with a watchdog warning back in March before banning the practice in August. That followed the blocking of more than 1,500 gambling websites in July.
Now, the Telangana Criminal Investigation Department (CID) carried out simultaneous raids across six locations in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Punjab in the first-of-its-kind nationwide crackdown on online gaming. This led to the arrest of eight alleged operators linked to illegal betting platforms.
The raids were carried out by six coordinated teams on Monday, September 22 and Tuesday, September 23. The targeted operators were identified using gaming apps, including Taj0077, Fairply.live, Andhra365, Vlbook, Telugu365 and Yes365.
What sparked the raids?
The eight alleged perpetrators are accused of allegedly tempting people into high-risk wagers that ended up in financial losses for several players. The raids saw the seizure of multiple hardware devices with data connected to the illegal betting networks.
The investigation remains ongoing, according to the CID, as reported by The Hindu. The data found on the hard drives is being examined to trace cash flow and digital footprints related to the operation.
Early findings suggest that the leaders of the organization could be based abroad, with those arrested so far thought to be local handlers working in the network in India. However, further investigation is expected to draw more conclusions about a potential wider syndicate behind the illegal gambling network.
The presence of illegal gaming networks was already warned about by Indian ministers ahead of passing the bill to ban online gambling. However, it’s worth noting that it’s not yet clear if this network sprang up before or after the ban in August.
Featured image: Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
