The Enforcement Directorate has searched four premises in Haryana’s Gurugram and Jind related to Probo Media Technologies Private Limited and its promoters. The company operates an app and a website named ‘Probo,’ which provides a platform for online gaming, the agency said on Wednesday (July 9, 2025).

The ED, in its press release, identified the company’s promoters as Sachin Subhaschandra Gupta and Ashish Garg. The searches pertained to allegations that the company was involved in illegal gambling and betting activities across India.

The ED probe is based on several first information reports registered under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Public Gambling Act against the company and its directors and promoters in Gurugram and Palwal in Haryana and Agra in Uttar Pradesh. The complainants alleged that they were cheated through a scheme that involved answering simple “yes or no” questions.

‘Deceptive image’

“The ED investigation revealed that the app and the website defrauds its users by initially promoting a deceptive image of a legitimate skill-based platform, only to ultimately exploit them through a betting mechanism where success is governed entirely by chance and not by the user’s abilities or insights. The company labelled its platform as ‘opinion trading’ and claimed knowledge/skill is required to play the game,” the agency alleged.

It added: “However, analysis of games shows that all the games can be answered with ‘yes or no’ and hence, there are only two possible outcomes, which makes it indistinguishable from gambling orbetting resulting in loss of hard-earned money of the users.”

According to the ED, the app/website did not have a mechanism to prevent minors from registering as users; there was an absence of proper due diligence (KYC); and new users were induced through misleading advertisements.

“Investigation also revealed that the company received ₹134.84 crore against the issue of preference shares from foreign entities based out of Mauritius and the Cayman Islands. The search resulted in the seizure of incriminating documents and digital data. Further fixed deposits and shares amounting to ₹284.50 crore and three bank lockers were frozen during the searches,” it added.