CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Online Gaming Authority (TNOGA) has sought explanation from the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) regarding advertisement of offshore betting apps at its tournament being held in Coimbatore.
The TNPL is an eight-team, franchise-based cricket competition organised by the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) where international and popular IPL cricketers from Tamil Nadu like R Ashwin, Sai Kishore, Shahrukh Khan, and T Natarajan are participating. It is telecast on TV and live-streaming apps.
A senior TNOGA official said that they had a meeting with the TNPL Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Prasanna Shankar at their office in MRC Nagar in Chennai on Wednesday (June 11). This was a few days after TNOGA sought an explanation after receiving multiple grievance emails from residents of Tamil Nadu, pointing out that TNPL teams have enlisted multiple betting apps like dafabet, 1xBet, MELBET, Cricadda, Pin-up Cricket and JSK1 as main sponsors. These apps are promoted through surrogate advertising like dafanews, MELBAT, Cricadda news, and JSK1 news, etc. TNIE had recently reported on the wide prevalence of surrogate advertising in TNPL.
According to the official, the surrogate advertising of offshore betting apps by TNPL has been found to be “prima facie objectionable”. The TNOGA official stated that even surrogate advertisement of online betting apps is not allowed as per Section 8 of the TN Prohibition of Online Gaming and Regulation of Online Games Act, which bans the direct or indirect promotion of online gambling. Section 16(2) allows for a punishment of one year prison term or Rs 5 lakh fine for those violating Section 8.
The TNOGA can also take action against these apps under the IT Rules, 2021, and write to the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) seeking their blocking under Section 69A of the Indian IT Act, 2000. This communication must be routed through the TN home department. Till date, the TNOGA has sent 62 proposals to the state home department seeking action against gambling and betting websites and apps.
According to sources, a TNPL official told TNOGA that they were unaware of this and have requested for a few days to consult with their legal team and inform the authority of their decision. Attempts to reach TNPL for a comment on Friday failed.
The TNOGA had recently sent notices to five social media influencers (two on Instagram and three on Youtube) over promotion of betting apps. All of them removed the ads and some even gave a written apology to the authority, sources said.