Gujarat Illegal Betting Apps Moved Bookmaking Onto Local Software

Gujarat investigators found that illegal gambling operations were increasingly using locally built Android applications and websites instead of relying only on phone calls and traditional bookmaking channels. Gujarat illegal betting apps became part of a wider CID investigation in 2023 after officers identified 90 websites and applications that they said had been created by local programmers for unlawful gambling activity.

The technical layer made the operations easier to distribute and harder for ordinary users to distinguish from legitimate digital services, while law enforcement still had to trace the people controlling the business behind the software.

CID identified 90 locally developed services

According to Gujarat CID Crime, investigators had identified 90 gambling websites and apps over the previous year and notified the Ministry of Home Affairs while seeking stronger action. Officers described a network in which local programmers built the visible software while people directing some of the betting activity operated from outside India.

The number referred to services identified by investigators, not to 90 separate criminal organisations, so it should not be read as a direct count of independent betting groups.

Small development jobs fed a larger illegal network

Police said bookmakers and operators hired local software developers, graphic designers and web developers for amounts ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 to create or customise apps and websites. That structure allowed an illegal business to buy technical work in small pieces without building a conventional software company around the operation.

For developers, the case showed that knowing how to build an application does not remove responsibility for understanding what the client intends to use it for, particularly when the service handles money or deliberately supports prohibited activity.

Telegram was used to distribute some customised apps

Investigators said dabba trading operators also used customised applications that could be shared through Telegram channels, allowing software to circulate outside normal app-store distribution. The approach reduced dependence on public listings that could be reported or removed more easily.

This did not make the services invisible to investigators. Police were examining developers, operators and the financial activity connected with both illegal cricket betting and dabba trading.

Games of skill created a legal boundary that criminals could misuse

Officers pointed to confusion between permitted skill-based formats and illegal betting as one reason users could struggle to judge an online service from its appearance alone. Court decisions involving fantasy sports did not amount to a general permission for bookmakers to accept illegal wagers, yet investigators said operators could exploit the public’s uncertainty around those distinctions.

The legal classification therefore depended on what the service actually did, not on whether it used the language of gaming or looked similar to another product available online.

IPL activity brought another round of enforcement

Ahmedabad crime branch officers had arrested 12 people accused of inviting bets on players and teams during IPL matches, while police said these rackets tended to become more active during major cricket tournaments and international fixtures.

The seasonality made large sporting events useful periods for investigators because higher betting activity could expose more accounts, devices and payment trails connected with illegal operations.

Dabba trading expanded the investigation beyond sport

Police were also examining illegal stock-market betting conducted outside recognised exchanges, known as dabba trading. SEBI prohibits the practice, and investigators suspected that some operators were handling both cricket betting and dabba trading through overlapping networks.

That overlap is what made the 2023 case broader than a story about a few gambling apps. Local software development had become one layer inside operations that combined illegal wagering, remote control and financial activity across several channels.