India’s online gambling most wanted run to ground (again)

India’s leading illegal online gambling operator has been run to ground by the cyber wing of the Mumbai Crime Branch.

On Wednesday, Indian media reported that Mumbai police had arrested nine individuals, including Ramesh Chaurasia and his son Anchal. The two Chaurasias are directors of Game King India Pvt Ltd, which operates the gamekingindia.com and planetgonline.com gambling domains (both of which currently display generic Microsoft Windows Server screens, although the gamekingindia.biz domain will still get you where you want to go).

The elder Chaurasia was arrested over a year ago in the state of Madhya Pradesh for operating a network of videogame parlors and cyber cafés that covertly provided access to the illegal online gambling sites. Chaurasia had also been arrested in Mumbai in 2013 but eluded prosecution, allegedly due to his political connections.

The Press Trust of India quoted Akbar Pathan, deputy commissioner of Mumbai’s cyber police unit, saying that the Chaurasia’s operation required their retail customers to pay real money for virtual credits that could be used to gamble via the online sites.