Cricketer Robin Uthappa appears before ED in online betting app case

New Delhi: Former Indian cricketer Robin Uthappa appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday for questioning in a money laundering case linked to an online betting app, officials said.

Uthappa (39) reached the agency's office here around 11 am.

The ED will question him and record his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in a case linked to a platform named 1xBet, the officials said.

The federal probe agency has questioned former cricketers Suresh Raina and Shikhar Dhawan apart from former TMC MP and actor Mimi Chakraborty and Bengali actor Ankush Hazra over the last few weeks as part of this investigation. Former cricketer Yuvraj Singh and actor Sonu Sood have been summoned for Tuesday and Wednesday respectively by the ED in the same case.

The probe pertains to the operations of the 1xBet betting app as part of the ED's wider probe against such platforms on allegations of duping numerous people and investors worth crores of rupees and reportedly evading a huge amount of direct and indirect taxes.

According to the Curacao registered company, 1xBet is a globally recognised bookmaker with 18 years in the betting industry. The brand's customers can place bets on thousands of sporting events, with the company's website and app available in 70 languages.

Some other sportspersons, movie actors, online influencers and celebrities are expected to be questioned by the agency in the coming days as part of this probe.

The ED's line of investigation, according to the sources, is to know from the celebrities as to how they were contacted by the said betting company seeking their endorsement, the nodal person(s) for contact in India, the mode of payment (cash through hawala or banking channel) and place of the payment (in India or abroad) etc.

The agency, while recording the statements of the cricketers and actors, is understood to be asking them if they knew that online betting and gaming was illegal in India. It has also asked them to furnish a copy of their contracts and all relevant email and paper documentation made by them with 1xBet.

The agency is also looking at the end use of the money taken by the celebrities to check if any of them can be categorised as the "proceeds of crime" under the PMLA, as per the sources.

The Union government recently banned real money online gaming in India by bringing a legislation.

The ED, during a recent national meeting of its senior officers in Jammu and Kashmir, has also decided to initiate "focused strategies" to investigate financial crimes arising from this sector linked to alleged illegal betting and gaming.

According to estimates by market analysis firms and probe agencies undertaken before the government ban, there were about 22 crore Indian users in various such online betting apps out of which half (about 11 crore) were regular users.

The online betting app market in India was estimated to be worth over USD 100 billion which was stated to be growing at the rate of 30 per cent, according to experts.

The government has told Parliament that it has issued 1,524 orders from 2022 till June 2025 to block online betting and gambling platforms.