The global betting and gambling industry is estimated to be over US$ 218 billion. The betting and gambling industry thrived worldwide during Covid19 induced lockdown. In India, when most of the industries were suffering heavy losses, online gaming was at an all-time high.
To clarify to our readers, online casinos are illegal in India. Users may also note that they may not have any legal recourse in India in case of any fraud, non-payment of winnings by the betting and casino apps.
In this post, we have pointed out how mainstream news websites are legitimizing illegal online casinos by sponsored posts. It now appears that The News Minute (TNM) has unpublished all the sponsored posts.
Of all the news websites analyzed by G2G Team, TNM has been the most active publisher of sponsored casino posts with 15+ posts in the last 2 months. All the casino posts on TNM are now returning ‘404 page not found.’
We are also reaching out to other media houses that publish sponsored online casino posts to understand how such posts fit in their editorial policy. A reason for the reckless attitude of media houses also stems from the fact that the law enforcement departments have adopted a more lenient attitude towards online casinos given the complexity in finding the real culprits.