The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has issued an advisory instructing private TV channels, digital news publishers, and OTT platforms to avoid showing commercials of online pay-to-earn sites and surrogate ads.

The ministry issued an advisory on the ads for online pay-to-earn platforms on Wednesday. In the advisory, the ministry said such sites present huge monetary and financial dangers for consumers, particularly youth and children.

The All India Gaming Federation, the zenith industry body for online gaming, said in a proclamation that it has been consistently highlighting this menace since 2018 and has been at the forefront in providing all relevant information to all government bodies and miniseries.

Praising MIB’s move to issue the advisory, Roland Landers, CEO, of All India Gaming Federation, said, “We are grateful to the Government for taking such a decisive step against illegal offshore gambling websites, which have been advertising in India in the garb of surrogate news and sports websites. AIGF has been highlighting this menace since 2018 and has been constantly taking up these issues with various Central Ministries and also providing evidence of uninterrupted advertising on major Indian OTT and satellite channels. We will continue to monitor this and report any infraction to the government. “We hope that, unlike previous TV networks, OTTs and digital news publishers will take this advisory seriously and refuse to support and give prime-time airspace to these anti-national websites.”

The ministry additionally highlighted that neither the pay-to-earn platforms nor the news sites are enlisted under any legal authority in India, and such sites are promoting pay-to-earn under the grab of news as surrogate advertising.

Landers further added, “This will also help distinguish legitimate Indian online skill gaming operators, which provide the highest player protection measures and are a form of entertainment, against these illegal gambling sites, which are the main reason for widespread consumer harm and problems.”

AIGF is the apex industry body for online gaming in India. Being the oldest, largest, and the most diverse industry association for online gaming, AIGF currently has more than 70 online gaming companies across esports, fantasy gaming, card games, casual gaming, and other formats as members, with a combined user base of over 400 million users. It claims to represent the majority of skill gaming operators across all gaming formats, as well as a sizable portion of the Indian online gaming MSME sector.

Since its origin six years ago, AIGF has been at the forefront, consulting with relevant policy-makers to show the significance and advantages of perceiving and standardizing the AIGF’s self-regulatory framework, embodied in its Skill Games Charter, which has been laid out by domain experts from the judiciary, executives, education, data science, and sports backgrounds.

Credit: Economic Times