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The Delhi High Court has ruled that although cricket betting is not a scheduled offence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA), the Enforcement Directorate (ED) can attach property acquired from illegal betting as proceeds of crime. A Division Bench of Justices Anil Kshetarpal and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar held that money earned through betting, which is linked to criminal acts such as forgery, cheating, and criminal conspiracy, falls within the scope of “proceeds of crime” under Section 2(1)(u) of the PMLA.

The Court explained that if property originates from a criminal activity related to a scheduled offence, the taint remains irrespective of downstream activities, including unlicensed businesses like betting, making all profits derived from it criminal proceeds. The principle of “fruit of a poisoned tree” was emphasized, applying to the illegal betting operation investigated by the ED.

The case arose from investigation of large-scale hawala and international betting operations managed via the UK-based Betfair.com platform, involving digital access credentials called Super Master IDs used to create multiple betting accounts without KYC compliance. The turnover was estimated at nearly ₹2,400 crore between 2014 and 2015.

The ED had attached movable and immovable properties believed to be proceeds of crime under the PMLA. Petitioners challenged the attachment based on the non-scheduled status of betting offences and jurisdictional arguments, which the Court rejected. The Court upheld the ED’s power to attach such properties and confirmed that Super Master Login IDs qualify as “property” under the PMLA.

The judgment also upheld the legitimacy of proceedings before a single-member PMLA adjudicating authority.​