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A betting app racket being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is owned by a Pakistan national, sources have said. This is for the first time the ED discovered a Pakistani angle in the Magicwin betting app case. Money was sent from India to Pakistan via Dubai, sources said.
Actors and celebrities from both big and small screens had promoted Magicwin on social media.
The ED has already questioned actors Mallika Sherawat and Pooja Banerjee. Two other celebrities have been summoned by the ED this weekend, sources said, adding that in the coming week at least seven more celebrities will be summoned.
The investigators found that Magicwin is a betting website which has been shown as a gaming website. It is being operated by Indian nationals living in Dubai, sources said, adding the betting games available on the website were run in the Philippines and other countries where betting is legal.
The API of the games is copied from other sources and rebroadcast on Magicwin, sources said. This betting app has many social media accounts which it uses to promote itself in India.
The ED has conducted 67 raids in this case across the country in the last six months.
The ED last week raided 21 locations of people linked with the Magicwin case in Delhi, Mumbai and Pune and seized about Rs 3.55 crore.
The action came after the Ahmedabad police filed a first information report (FIR) against the app.
The betting winners' money was transferred to their bank accounts through payment gateways and aggregators of shell companies. Apart from this, money was also sent to the players through domestic money transfer (DMT).