Whose money paid you? The ED's account of how a ₹5,000 Parimatch withdrawal reached Indian players

Most players never ask where a betting withdrawal comes from. The money lands, the UPI app pings, and that is the end of it. The Enforcement Directorate's case against Parimatch suggests the answer is worth knowing, because in many cases the money was not the company's at all.

What the ED says happened

ED officials told the Hindustan Times, which reported it on 21 October 2026, that a ₹5,000 Parimatch withdrawal often did not arrive as one payment. It came as several smaller UPI credits from accounts the player had never heard of. Those accounts belonged to other users, whose deposits were being passed straight on to winners. In other cases the payout came through wallets at kirana stores, loaded with cash by banking correspondents.

The agency puts the collection network at around 500 mule bank accounts across the country, many opened in the names of people with no link to betting. It says Parimatch made about ₹3,000 crore from Indian users in 2023-24 alone, and the full amount is still being worked out.

The routes out of India

Earlier reporting by the Free Press Journal, from searches in early September, described how money left the country. About ₹500 crore is said to have gone through sham imports of services and overseas direct investment. At least ₹200 crore went through two travel operators that sold no travel. Hindustan Times reports that about ₹150 crore has been frozen or seized so far, in batches of ₹110 crore and ₹37 crore.

Why this matters to an ordinary player

Picture the chain from the player's side. You withdraw ₹5,000 and receive four credits of ₹1,250 each from four strangers' accounts. Each of those accounts is a mule. If one of them is later reported in a fraud complaint, investigators look at every account it paid. Yours is on that list. Banks can freeze the receiving account while they check, and a frozen balance in a laundering chain is very hard to get back.

There is a second risk. Some players were asked to receive deposits on behalf of the platform in return for a small cut. Anyone who did that was no longer a customer but a part of the collection network, which is exactly what section 7 of the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 forbids. The Act has been in force since 1 May 2026.

What to keep on record

If you received payouts from a platform like this, save the UPI transaction history showing the sender names and dates. Do not delete chats with agents. If a bank freezes your account, ask in writing which agency made the request and contact that office directly. The national cyber crime helpline is 1930.

The full timeline, the amounts with their sources and the sections of the Act that apply are set out in the ED's account of Parimatch paying winners from other players' deposits. The investigation is ongoing and no court has yet ruled on the allegations. 18+.