ASCI fails to stop Illegal Offshore Betting Ads in its own backyard

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The Advertisement Standards Council of India (ASCI), the watchdog and self-regulatory body for overseeing fair and honest standards of advertisements through all modes has failed to take action against hoardings on bus stops by illegal offshore gambling website Zuplay in the Lower Parel area of Mumbai.

The hoardings of the illegal betting website, which claims to have former West Indies cricketer Dwayne Bravo as its brand ambassador, continue to be visible to the public for the past several weeks. Some of Zuplay’s hoardings are located just few metres away from ASCI’s Worli head office in Mumbai. G2G News had raised the rampant illegal advertisements by Zuplay through Out of Home (OOH) advertising a few days ago and as per sources the issue was also flagged by multiple people to the top echelons in ASCI, but ostensibly no action has been taken against the illegal ads so far.

Notably, ASCI has enacted a code for real-money online gaming that has to be followed by all companies and has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with three prominent gaming federations, viz. All India Gaming Federation (AIGF), Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports and E-Gaming Federation (EGF) to establish a special monitoring cell to identify, track and report illegal offshore betting ads.

However, given that ASCI and its monitoring cell is unable to identify, track and report illegal offshore gambling advertisements located at a stone’s throw from its own office, question marks are being raised at the self-regulatory body’s efficacy as an industry watchdog. It appears that self-regulatory bodies are more interested in self-aggrandisement, conducting PR activities and making grand announcements rather than ensuring strong action on the ground.

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