Offshore illegal betting website FairPlay is now taking advantage of the recent announcement by the GST council to levy 28% GST on online gaming. It has now befooled users to come and play on the platform. Despite being an illegal platform, it claimed that users do not need to pay any GST and taxes on playing.

In the latest Instagram post by Shilpa Khatwani Shahid, the digital influencer was spotted promoting the illegal betting website that was banned last year by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) along with several other similar websites.

The advertisement shamelessly promotes the new domain for the betting website, along with no tax and no GST. With the latest decision of GST council, many users are looking for alternatives to RMG platforms. Fairplay has taken the advantage of the same to dupe users.

Using celebrities and posing as a legal platform – a go-to way for FairPlay, other betting sites

Using these statements along with a popular influencer, these illegal betting websites lure in more people as they pretend to be a legal website. With a trusted face on the advertisement, users do not doubt their intentions and usually fall victim to them.

Fairplay has previously roped in other big names as their brand ambassador. These include Badshah, Sanjay Dutt, Tamannaah Bhatia and many more local influencers. Without any proper due diligence, celebrities also agree to the sponsorship offers without realizing about the harm theta re causing their fans and the country.

Another recent example is Robin Uthappa, who joined illegal betting website Crickex as brand ambassador. The website describes itself as a sports betting brand, an activity declared as illegal in India.

Using these celebrities for promotion up their chances of user gain as proved in a previous study by Prof. Dheeraj Sharma, Director at IIM Rohtak. Sharma concluded that young people are more likely to gamble if a celebrity is promoting the activity.

In order to prevent further celebrity advertisements, the government is planning to release another advisory aimed at the celebrities, asking them to not promote these illegal betting platforms.