The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is expanding its probe into illegal online betting sites and the latest to be called in for questioning is former Indian cricketer Robin Uthappa.
Uthappa, a right-handed batsman, will appear at the ED office on September 22 and give a statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). He is the latest big name to be summoned in this growing list.
Uthappa was called in after ED questioned fellow cricketers Suresh Raina and Shikhar Dhawan recently. All these questionings are part of a larger probe into several illegal betting sites. These sites are suspected of money laundering and violating foreign exchange rules by using indirect ads.
The ED, which handles financial crime cases, has been calling in celebrities from the sports and entertainment industry. They want to know how these celebrities are connected to the betting apps, with special interest in endorsement payments and how they communicated with each other.
Read Also:- BCCI Issues Strong Statement on Handshake Controversy
Before Uthappa, Raina and Dhawan were questioned on August 13 and September 4 respectively. ED wants to know the celebrity connections to get a clear picture of endorsement income and communication methods used between the celebrities and the betting apps.
The government has been warning against the advertising of betting platforms. They have issued four warnings in 2023 to newspapers, TV news channels, entertainment channels, online news publishers, online ad platforms (like Google and Facebook) and social media sites. The message was clear: don’t advertise online betting platforms.
Despite these government rules that prohibit the advertising of online betting platforms, celebrities in entertainment and sports are still endorsing them. The size of the problem is huge with estimates showing around 220 million Indian users are on different betting apps and around 110 million of those are regular users.
