WinZO's mobile app and website go under 'maintenance' due to server disruption

WinZO's ED troubles

The disruption comes at a turbulent moment for the Delhi-based startup, which is already dealing with a crisis following the recent arrest of co-founders Saumya Singh Rathore and Paavan Nanda by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on money laundering charges.

On November 27, a Bengaluru court sent both the founders for 10-day ED custody until December 6 for further investigation.

The arrests come after the ED searched four WinZO locations in Delhi and Gurugram earlier this month and froze assets worth Rs 505 crore in the form of bank balances, bonds, fixed deposits, and mutual funds under Section 17 (1A) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

On November 24, ED said its investigation found that WinZO engaged in "criminal activities and unscrupulous practices i.e. customers were made to play with algorithms or software without being made aware of the fact that they are playing with software or algorithms and not with humans in real-money games".

The probe also revealed that WinZO prevented or limited withdrawals of monies held by the customers in their wallets, and that about Rs 43 crore is still being held by the company without being refunded to players, despite a ban on real money games since August 22, the agency said.

That said, the online gaming law is yet to come into effect and the draft rules, released on October 2, proposed a 180-day window for gaming companies to repay funds owed to users once the law gets operational.

The agency also said its investigation found WinZO operating real money games in markets such as Brazil, the United States and Germany from India using the same platform as its Indian entity.

About $55 million (Rs 489.90 crore) has been parked in a bank account in the United States held in the name of WinZO US Inc, which the ED described as a shell company, since all operations, day-to-day activities, and bank account management are handled from India.

Started by Paavan Nanda and Saumya Singh Rathore, WinZO offers over 100 games in 15 Indian languages developed by third-party game developers from around the world on its platform. It has raised a total of $100 million across multiple financing rounds from investors such as Griffin Gaming Partners, Maker’s Fund, Courtside, and Kalaari Capital until now.

WinZO had discontinued its real-money gaming business in India in August after the government introduced an online gaming law that placed a blanket ban on online money games, where a user makes a deposit, directly or indirectly, with the expectation of earning winnings on that deposit.

In recent months, the company had forayed into newer areas such as microdramas and digital gold investments.