BENGALURU: Officials attached to the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Bengaluru Zonal Office, conducted a search operation at the office premises of the accounting firm for WinZo Pvt Ltd, under Section 17 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, on Tuesday.
WinZO Pvt Ltd is into the business of online real money gaming services through its app WinZO. During the search, Proceeds of Crime (POC) possessed by ZO Games Pvt Ltd (fully owned Indian subsidiary of WinZo Pvt Ltd) worth around Rs 192 crore, was frozen in the form of bank balances, FDRs and mutual funds under Section 17 (1A) of PMLA, 2002, according to an ED press statement.
On November 18, 2025, ED had conducted search and seizure operations at the WinZo office premises, and residential premises of its director. The evidence unearthed during the search and subsequent investigation revealed that the company was engaged in criminal activities and unscrupulous practices i.e, customers were made to play with BOTS/AI/Algorithms/software (termed as PPP/EP/Persona) without being made aware of it and not with humans in real money games. WinZo has also prevented/limited withdrawals of monies held by customers in its wallets.
The company also generated POC in the form of ‘Rake Commission’ from matches played by BOTs with real players on their WinZo app. In this manner, the company had made winnings of around Rs 177 crore from the BOTS, from May 2024 to August 2025, and approximately Rs 557 crore from April 2022 to December 2023.
Also, the company was in possession of users’ monies amounting to Rs 43 crore. Investigation has revealed that WinZo generated POC of around Rs 802 crore.