#FactCheck - The video of Virat Kohli promoting online casino mobile app is a deep fake.

Think about the difference between a video game and gambling the way most people were taught to understand it. A video game is something you play, maybe you spend money on it upfront, maybe you buy an expansion pack, but what you get in return is fixed and known. Gambling is different: you put money in, and what comes back is uncertain, decided by chance, with real financial stakes attached to the outcome. For decades, that distinction was reasonably clear. It no longer is.

Across a growing number of mobile games and gaming platforms, the two have started to blend into each other. Games increasingly include features where a player pays real money for a randomised reward, a mechanic structurally identical to a slot machine or a scratch card, just wrapped in animation, sound effects, and gaming language that makes it feel like part of the game rather than a bet. Because this trend targets an audience that skews young, and because it deliberately makes gambling like behaviour feel like ordinary play, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime recently flagged it as a serious and growing concern. Understanding exactly what is happening, and why it matters, starts with their warning.

What UNODC is actually warning about

The claim traces back to UNODC's July 2026 report, An Interconnected Criminal Ecosystem: Transnational Organised Crime Threat Assessment for Southeast Asia 2026. Delphine Schantz, UNODC's regional representative for South-East Asia and the Pacific, put the core problem plainly: the line between online gaming and online gambling is becoming increasingly blurred, and platforms have converged through design features that deliberately exploit that ambiguity. Online gaming, by definition, never required money changing hands. What the report documents is a shift where mobile accessibility, deliberately addictive design, and the introduction of real monetary stakes are pulling younger users into something that looks and feels like gaming but functions, mechanically, like gambling.

The report's most striking finding is not really about the games themselves. It is about what happens after. UNODC found that illegal online gambling platforms operating across the region do not simply extract money from young users; they generate a secondary population of indebted, criminally exposed young people who become vulnerable to recruitment into broader criminal networks, including debt collection operations, money mule schemes, and the scam compounds the report documents elsewhere. In other words, the gambling loss is often only the first harm. The debt it creates becomes the entry point into something considerably worse.

The mechanics of the convergence

This is not a vague, impressionistic claim. Academic researchers have spent close to a decade documenting the specific design features responsible for blurring gaming and gambling, and loot boxes sit at the centre of that research. A loot box is a purchasable in game item containing randomised rewards, structurally similar to a scratch card or a slot pull, wrapped in gaming aesthetics, animated reveal sequences, anticipation building sound design, that make the underlying mechanic easy to overlook. Researchers writing in Nature Human Behaviour as early as 2018 argued loot boxes are psychologically akin to gambling, and subsequent studies have consistently found meaningful associations between loot box engagement and problem gambling severity in young people. One widely cited cross sectional study estimated that between 16 and 21 percent of surveyed young people had engaged in gambling like video game practices at least once in the preceding year, and found that people who engaged in one such practice were highly likely to engage in several more, suggesting these mechanics function less as isolated features and more as an interconnected ecosystem designed to normalise wagering behaviour early.

What makes this genuinely difficult to regulate is precisely the ambiguity Schantz pointed to. A loot box does not always pay out in real currency; often the reward is a cosmetic item, a weapon skin, or in game currency that can then be resold or traded on secondary markets, creating real monetary value once removed from the platform that generated it. That one extra step, converting a virtual reward into tradeable value outside the game itself, has repeatedly let gambling like mechanics avoid classification under gambling law, even as researchers increasingly argue the psychological experience for the user is functionally identical. Regulators in several countries, including the UK, South Korea, and parts of Europe, have wrestled with exactly this classification problem for years, generally landing on disclosure requirements, probability labelling, and age restrictions rather than outright bans, an approach critics argue leaves the core mechanic intact while addressing only its edges.

The mobile phone has made all of this considerably harder to contain. Where gambling once required a physical location, an ID check, or at minimum a desktop browser, mobile gaming apps put the same monetised, chance based mechanics directly into a pocket, often accessible without any meaningful age verification beyond a self reported birth date a user can simply falsify. UNODC's own framing of "mobile access" as a driving factor is not incidental; it is arguably the single structural change that turned what was once a manageable regulatory grey zone into a rapidly scaling public health concern.

Why age matters so much here

Financial literacy research is fairly consistent on this point: the capacity to reason clearly about risk, probability, and long term financial consequence continues developing well into a person's twenties. Marketing a mechanic engineered around variable reward schedules, the same principle behind slot machine design, to an audience whose risk judgment is still forming is not an accident of overlapping demographics. It is, as UNODC's own language suggests, closer to a deliberate exploitation of that gap.

Where India fits into this picture

India has arguably moved further and faster on this exact concern than most jurisdictions. The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, alongside its accompanying 2026 Rules that came into force on 1 May 2026, drew a hard statutory line most countries have avoided: real money online games, including fantasy sports, rummy, poker, and online casino style platforms, are now categorically prohibited in India, not merely regulated. A newly created central regulator, the Online Gaming Authority of India, oversees a separate, permitted category for e-sports and social games, requiring registration, age gating, and grievance redressal mechanisms, while offshore and unregistered real money platforms are now explicitly illegal to operate or use, backed by bank freeze powers and potential prosecution of platform directors.

The government's own stated rationale mirrors UNODC's warning almost exactly. Lawmakers cited addiction and social harm linked to real money games, reports that Indian users lose close to 20,000 crore rupees annually on these platforms, concerns about money laundering and potential terror financing routed through gaming networks, and specifically flagged the vulnerability of teenagers increasingly drawn into fantasy leagues and online poker as a driving justification. India's approach, an outright prohibition on monetary stakes rather than a licensed regulatory model similar to the UK's Gambling Commission or Malta's Gaming Authority, is distinctive by global standards, and reflects a judgement that the gaming gambling boundary has already become too difficult to police through disclosure and age verification alone.

The larger question this leaves open

Whether prohibition succeeds where lighter touch regulation elsewhere has struggled remains genuinely unresolved, and enforcement against offshore platforms determined to evade an Indian ban is likely to be an ongoing challenge rather than a solved problem. What UNODC's warning underscores, and what India's own legislative response implicitly concedes, is that voluntary industry self regulation was never going to be sufficient on its own. Platforms have commercial incentive to keep the gaming gambling boundary blurry, not to clarify it, because that ambiguity is precisely what lets monetised, addictive design features reach audiences who would otherwise be walled off from gambling entirely. Closing that gap convincingly will likely require the kind of cross sector coordination, spanning gaming regulators, financial authorities, and platform accountability, that UNODC's own statement called for, rather than any single fix applied in isolation.

References

1. UNODC, "An Interconnected Criminal Ecosystem: Transnational Organised Crime Threat Assessment for Southeast Asia 2026," July 2026. 
2. The Hawk, "UNODC warns young gamers lured into online gambling." https://www.thehawk.in/news/india/unodc-warns-young-gamers-lured-into-online-gambling
3.  IAG, "UNODC report says Southeast Asian illegal online gambling creating cycle of crime that targets youth." https://asgam.com/2026/07/22/unodc-report-says-southeast-asian-illegal-online-gambling-creating-cycle-of-crime-that-targets-the-youth/
4. GambleAware, "Lifting the Lid on Loot Boxes: Chance-based purchases in videogames and the convergence of gaming and gambling." https://www.gambleaware.org/media/aswow4lr/gaming_and_gambling_report_final_0.pdf Drummond
5. A, Sauer JD, "Video game loot boxes are psychologically akin to gambling," Nature Human Behaviour, 2018. PubMed, "Loot Boxes, Gambling, and Problem Gambling Among Young People: Results from a Cross-Sectional Online Survey." https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33103911/
6. Mondaq, "Play By The New Rules: India's 2026 Online Gaming Law Decoded." https://www.mondaq.com/india/gaming/1785180/play-by-the-new-rules-indias-2026-online-gaming-law-decoded
7. CAclubindia, "India's Online Gaming Revolution: A Complete Guide to the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming w.e.f 1st May, 2026." https://www.caclubindia.com/articles/indias-online-gaming-revolution-a-complete-guide-to-the-promotion-and-regulation-of-online-gaming-wef-1st-may-2026-55118.asp
8. https://www.meity.gov.in/static/uploads/2025/10/8a7f103cefc68ed8aaa2ebc9a2ed7c13.pdf
9. https://x.com/UNODC/status/2100560453319467298?s=48&t=3CXE-95D2WFgsLsKDkX_Jg

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Executive Summary:

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Following India’s heavy defeat to South Africa in the T20 World Cup 2026, the team has been facing intense trolling on social media. Amid this backdrop, a video of Indian cricket team head coach Gautam Gambhir has gone viral. In the clip, Gambhir can be heard saying,“Even people who have nothing to do with cricket have made comments. An IPL owner also wrote about split coaching. It’s surprising. People must stay in their own domain. If we don’t interfere in someone else’s domain, they have no right to interfere in ours.”The video is being shared with the claim that Gambhir made these remarks recently in response to trolling after India’s loss to South Africa in the T20 World Cup 2026. However, research by the CyberPeace found the claim to be misleading. The viral video is not related to the T20 World Cup 2026. It is from December 2025 and pertains to India’s Test series defeat against South Africa. An old video is being circulated with a misleading context.

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Claim

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An Instagram user, ‘rns_news200’, shared the viral video on February 23, 2026, claiming that after the loss to South Africa, head coach Gautam Gambhir issued a stern warning to Indian fans. The caption stated that Suryakumar Yadav was heavily trolled on social media after the match, and Gambhir responded strongly, saying players should not be unfairly targeted and the team deserves support, especially during difficult times.

• https://www.instagram.com/reels/DVF8zg7jBVd/
• https://archive.ph/bbCuG 

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Fact Check

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To verify the claim, we conducted a keyword search on Google. We found the same video on the official X (formerly Twitter) account of sports journalist Vikrant Gupta. The video was posted on December 7, 2025. According to the caption, Gambhir was expressing dissatisfaction following India’s performance.

• https://x.com/vikrantgupta73/status/1997389406777290815?s=20

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We also found the longer version of the video on the official website of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), where it was published on December 6, 2025. In the full video, Gambhir is clearly seen speaking about India’s defeat to South Africa in a Test match. The specific segment that went viral appears around the 1 minute 58 second mark.

• https://www.bcci.tv/video/5567723/its-important-that-young-boys-are-grabbing-their-opportunities-gautam-gambhir 

Conclusion

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Our research  found that the viral claim about Gautam Gambhir’s video being linked to trolling after the T20 World Cup 2026 is misleading. The clip is from December 2025 and relates to India’s Test series defeat against South Africa — not the T20 World Cup 2026.An old video is being reshared with a false and misleading context.

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Introduction

The role of ‘Small and Medium Enterprises’ (SMEs) in the economic and social development of the country is well established. The SME sector is often driven by individual creativity and innovation. With its contribution at  8% of the country’s GDP, and 45% of the manufactured output and 40% of its exports, SMEs provide employment to about 60 million persons through over 26 million enterprises producing over six thousand products. 

It would be an understatement to say that the SMEs sector in India is highly heterogeneous in terms of the size of the enterprises, variety of products and services produced and the levels of technology employed. With the SME sector booming across the country, these enterprises are contributing significantly to local, state, regional and national growth and feeding into India’s objectives of inclusive, sustainable development. 

As the digital economy expands, SMEs cannot be left behind and must integrate online to be able to grow and prosper. This development is not without its risks and cybersecurity concerns and digital threats like misinformation are fast becoming a pressing pain point for the SME sector. The unique challenge posed to SMEs by cyber threats is that while the negative consequences of digital risks are just as damaging for the SMEs as they are for larger industries, the former’s ability to counter these threats is not at par with the latter, owing to the limited nature of resources at their disposal. The rapid development of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence makes it easier for malicious actors to develop bots, deepfakes, or other forms of manipulated content that can steer customers away from small businesses and the consequences can be devastating. 

Misinformation is the sharing of inaccurate and misleading information, and the act can be both deliberate and unintentional. Malicious actors can use fake reviews, rumours, or false images to promote negative content or create backlash against a business’ brand and reputation. For a fledgling or growing enterprise, its credibility is a critical asset and any threat to the same is as much a cause for concern as any other operational hindrance. 

Relationship Building to Counter Misinformation

We live in a world that is dominated by brands. A brand should ideally inspire trust. It is the single most powerful and unifying characteristic that embodies an organisation's culture and values and once well-established, can create incremental value. Businesses report industry rumours where misinformation resulted in the devaluation of a product, sowing mistrust among customers, and negatively impacting the companies’ revenue. Mitigating strategies to counter these digital downsides can include implementing greater due diligence and basic cyber hygiene practices, like two-factor or multi-factor authentication, as well as open communication of one’s experiences in the larger professional and business networks. 

The loss of customer trust can be fatal for a business, and for an SME, the access to the scale of digital and other resources required to restore reputations may simply not be a feasible option. Creating your brand story is not just the selling pitch you give to customers and investors, but is also about larger qualitative factors such as your own motivation for starting the enterprise or the emotional connection your audience base enjoys with your organisation. The brand story is a mosaic of multiple tangible and intangible elements that all come together to determine how the brand is perceived by its various stakeholders. Building a compelling and fortified brand story which resonates deeply with people is an important step in developing a robust reputation. It can help innoculate against several degrees of misinformation and malicious attempts and ensure that customers continue to place their faith in the brand despite attempts to hurt this dynamic.

Engaging with the target audience, ie, the customer base is part of an effective marketing tool and misinformation inoculation strategy. SMEs should also continuously assess their strategies, adapt to market changes, and remain agile in their approach to stay competitive and relevant in today's dynamic business environment. These strategies will lead to greater customer engagement through the means of feedback, reviews and surveys which help in building trust and loyalty. Innovative and dynamic customer service engages the target audience and helps in staying in the competition and being relevant.

Crisis Management and Response

Having a crisis management strategy is an important practice for all SMEs and should be mandated for better policy implementation. Businesses need greater due diligence and basic cyber hygiene practices, like two-factor authentication, essential compliances, strong password protocols, transparent disclosure, etc. 

The following steps should form part of a crisis management and response strategy:

• Assessing the damage by identifying the misinformation spread and its impact is the first step.  
• Issuing a response in the form of a public statement by engaging the media should precede legal action. 
• Two levels of communication need to take place in response to a misinformation attack. The first tier is internal, to the employees and it should clarify the implications of the incident and the organisation’s response plan. The other is aimed at customers via direct outreach to clarify the situation and provide accurate information in regard to the matter.  If required the employees can be provided training related to the handling of the customer enquiries regarding the misinformation.
• The digital engagement of the enterprise should be promptly updated and social media platforms and online communications must address the issue and provide clarity and factual information. 
• Immediate action must include a plan to rebuild reputations and trust by ensuring customers of the high quality of products and services. The management should seek customer feedback and show commitment to improving processes and transparency. Sharing positive testimonials and stories of satisfied customers can also help at this stage. 
• Engaging with the community and collaborating with organisations is also an important part of crisis management.

While these steps are for rebuilding and crisis management, further steps also need to be taken:

• Monitoring customer sentiment and gauging the effectiveness of the efforts taken is also necessary. And if required, strategic adjustments can be made in response to the evolving circumstances. 
• Depending on the severity of the impact, management may choose to engage the professional help of PR consultants and crisis management experts to develop comprehensive recovery plans and help navigate the situation.
• A long-term strategy which focuses on building resilience against future attacks is important. Along with this, engaging in transparency and proactive communication with stakeholders is a must.

Legal and Ethical Considerations

SMEs administrators must prioritise ethical market practices and appreciate that SMEs are subject to laws which deal with defamation, intellectual property rights- trademark and copyright infringement in particular, data protection and privacy laws and consumer protection laws. Having the knowledge of these laws and ensuring that there is no infringement upon the rights of other enterprises or their consumers is integral in order to continue engaging in business legally. 

Ethical and transparent business conduct includes clear and honest communication and proactive public redressal mechanisms in the event of misinformation or mistakes. These efforts go a long way towards building trust and accountability. 

Proactive public engagement is an important step in building relationships. SMEs can engage with the community where they conduct their business through outreach programs and social media engagement. Efforts to counter misinformation through public education campaigns that alert customers and other stakeholders about misinformation serve the dual purpose of countering misinformation and creating deep community ties. SME administrators should monitor content and developments in their markets and sectors to ensure that their marketing practices are ethical and not creating or spreading misinformation, be it in the form of active sensationalising of existing content or passive dissemination of misinformation created by others. Fact-checking tools and expert consultations can help address and prevent a myriad of problems and should be incorporated into everyday operations.

Conclusion

Developing strong cybersecurity protocols, practising basic digital hygiene and ensuring regulatory compliances are crucial to ensure that a business not only survives but also thrives. Therefore, a crisis management plan and trust-building along with ethical business and legal practices go a long way in ensuring the future of SMEs.  In today's digital landscape, misinformation is pervasive, and trust has become a cornerstone of successful business operations. It is the bedrock of a resilient and successful SME. By implementing and continuously improving trust-building efforts, businesses can not only navigate the challenges of misinformation but also create lasting value for their customers and stakeholders. Prioritising trust ensures long-term growth and sustainability in an ever-evolving digital landscape.

References 

• https://SME.gov.in/sites/default/files/SME-Strategic-Action-Plan.pdf 
• https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2024/01/countering-disinformation-effectively-an-evidence-based-policy-guide?lang=en 
• https://dcSME.gov.in/Report%20of%20Expert%20Committee%20on%20SMEs%20-%20The%20U%20K%20Sinha%20Committee%20constitutes%20by%20RBI.pdf 

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