India has just announced that it has blocked an additional 8,376 websites involved with gambling and gaming as the offshore usage continues to be a problem for the country
Since the Online Gaming Act of 2025 came into effect, more than 4,800 of the blocked URLs have been removed. That law banned online gambling for money and has since become a key element of the Indian government’s efforts to combat betting and gambling through online channels.
CUTS International’s survey conducted last December within the Delhi NCR found that the number of users using offshore sites increased from 68.3% before the ban and up to 82% after the ban (up 20.1% overall). The survey data also indicated that the amount of users accessing those sites daily had increased from 3.4% of users prior to the ban and 42.3% of users after the ban. In addition to users increasing daily usage, the data shows users have spent longer amounts of time on these platforms and increasing the amount they spend on a monthly basis.
Users have been able to bypass the restrictions put into place by Indian law through the use of mirror domains and the use of local payment options like UPI. A CUTS International survey in Tamil Nadu in early January found that usage of sites offering offshore gambling has also increased by 15.2% since the ban, showing that usage of these sites is still prevalent in many states even with the more stringent legal environment in place.
The MediaNama panel discussion regarding the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act (2025) held in September 2025 noted the size of the offshore gambling industry. Dhruv Garg, Partner at IGAP stated that the total value of the offshore gambling industry was around $20 billion and emphasized that all of that capital is flowing out of the country without being taxed and estimated that the total tax losses to the government from the offshore gambling industry is over $4 billion, which is higher than the revenue obtained from the legal gambling industry in the country.
