The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has conducted searches at 20 premises across multiple cities in connection with a money laundering probe into the online betting platform- magicwin. It was alleged that magicwin hosted illegal activities such as betting on live cricket matches and other games.
The search follows the first information report (FIR) filed with the cyber crime police station against the platform for unauthorised streaming of ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024.
ED said the broadcast of live cricket matches of ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 was without any subscription fee and was done in order to tempt the gullible people to bet on their website.
Spanning across Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Lucknow and Coimbatore, the search operations led to the seizure of Rs 30 lakh cash.
In a statement, the department said, “ED, Ahmedabad Zonal Office has conducted search operations in collaboration with the cyber crime Police Station Ahmedabad at 20 premises situated in Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Lucknow and Coimbatore in the case of magicwin and others under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.”
Further, it froze an amount of Rs 2 crore and flagged crypto wallets with balances worth Rs 12 crore in connection with the probe.
This comes at a time when the central government has increased the bid to curb the online betting menace.
In March 2024, in the run-up to the ICC T20 Cricket World Cup, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) issued an advisory emphasising the prohibition of advertising, promotion, and endorsement of online betting.
Betting and gambling are strictly prohibited under the Public Gambling Act, 1867, and are considered illegal in the majority of regions across the country. Despite this, online betting platforms and apps persist in advertising betting and gambling directly, as well as under the guise of gaming, it said.