India’s on-line betting promoting panorama stays troublesome to police one 12 months after the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 (PROGA) got here into power. The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) reported 4,858 playing and betting commercials through the interval, with virtually 97% showing by means of digital channels.
Betting accounted for 4,856 of these commercials, whereas solely two concerned on-line gaming.
The figures arrive as India approaches a busy cricket schedule and festive season, when betting operators have traditionally sought alternatives round sporting occasions.
Advertising Peaked After PROGA
ASCI recorded 1,146 commercials in August 2025, 951 in September and 1,053 in October. The three-month complete reached 3,150 circumstances, round 65% of all commercials reported through the 12 months.
Activity then slowed, with 725 circumstances in November, 330 in December and 245 in January 2026. The first six months accounted for 4,450 commercials, almost 92% of the whole.
ASCI subsequently reported zero circumstances in February, one in March, one in April and two in May. Activity returned in June and July, producing 220 and 182 commercials respectively. The provided information additionally included two circumstances from August 2026.
Digital Media Remains The Main Concern
ASCI’s FY2024-25 annual report discovered that digital media accounted for 94% of investigated promoting violations, whereas conventional media recorded round 98% compliance.
Offshore betting and playing violations rose from 1,311 in FY2023-24 to three,081 in FY2024-25. ASCI additionally recognized 318 influencers selling offshore playing commercials on social media and located disguised promotions on group and fan pages.
The council reported no playing or betting commercials on print or OTT platforms through the post-PROGA interval, though it recognized two betting tv commercials.
Cricket Season Brings Another Test
The Women’s Asia Cup runs from August 28 to September 13, adopted by cricket competitions on the Asian Games. India additionally has bilateral collection in opposition to the West Indies, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Australia.
Namita Viswanath, Partner at CMS INDUSLAW, mentioned operators more and more depend on harder-to-monitor digital channels.
“During IPL and major tournaments, sites ramp up India-facing offers around cashbacks, bonus deposits, special odds and cricket-linked promotions. Their marketing playbook is increasingly skewed towards channels that are harder to police: Telegram groups that push tips, live odds and payment instructions at scale; and Instagram and other social feeds that appear to be generic sports update pages but have users funnelled to betting apps,” mentioned Namita Viswanath, Partner at CMS INDUSLAW.
“This blurs the line between User Generated Content (UGC) and paid promotion and makes enforcement more difficult,” Viswanath mentioned.
Malak Bhatt mentioned offshore operators use mirror domains and surrogate sports activities handles round main occasions and festivals.
Technology and gaming lawyer Jay Sayta mentioned monitoring 1000’s of platforms stays troublesome.
“It is important that the government acknowledges the impossibility of banning all online betting platforms, and continuously monitoring thousands of such websites/apps, and that enforcement of PROGA has been a failure,” Sayta mentioned.
Source:
“One year of PROGA: ASCI flags 4,858 betting ads ahead of cricket calendar, festive season”, exchange4media.com, August 26, 2026
