# Cricket ID and Agent Accounts: Who Really Holds Your Money Source: https://cricketin.org/en/guides/cricket-id-and-agent-accounts [By Ananya Rathi](/en/authors/legal-writer), Legal and Compliance Writer. [Reviewed by Rajeev Sathe](/en/authors/editor-in-chief), Editor-in-Chief. Updated 10 Nov 2026. Editorial policy: https://cricketin.org/en/editorial-policy 18+. Betting carries financial risk and can become addictive. Free helpline Tele-MANAS: 14416. --- How cricket ID and agent accounts work, who really holds the money, why a claim is hard to enforce, and how an account in your own name differs. With a cricket ID or agent account you hold no account at all. Someone else holds one, and you are a line inside it. Your money sits in their bank account, and the balance you see is a figure they can edit. UPI makes the transfer final: a payment cannot be stopped once it starts ([NPCI UPI FAQ](https://www.npci.org.in/what-we-do/upi/faqs)). This guide shows what is missing in that arrangement, why a claim against an agent is hard to enforce and where a complaint can and cannot go. The last section covers the alternative: an account opened in your own name. ## What the arrangement actually is The offer sounds like a service. Someone gives you a user name and a password for a betting site. You pay that person, they add a balance, and later you ask them for your money. Strip out the words and one thing stands out. You never have an account. Someone else has the account, and you are a line inside it. The names vary: cricket ID, gaming ID, panel ID, agent account, master account. The set-up does not vary at all. People pick it for plain reasons. It feels simpler, there is no sign-up form, and someone answers your messages fast. Those are real conveniences, and they are what you trade the rest for. One feature decides everything else: your money and your name both sit behind a stranger. ## Who is actually holding your money Follow the money once, slowly. You send a payment to a person or a small firm, and it lands in their bank account. UPI is built to make that final. NPCI says a payment cannot be stopped once it starts, and the other side is paid at once ([NPCI UPI FAQ](https://www.npci.org.in/what-we-do/upi/faqs)). The guide to [UPI payments](/en/guides/upi-and-online-gaming-payments) covers the mechanics. Then a balance shows up on your screen. It is a number typed by the person you paid, not a deposit held anywhere. So there are two things, not one. There is real money, which is in their account, and there is a figure on a screen, which is a promise. The figure can be edited. The money cannot be called back. ## The paperwork that does not exist Set it against any bank you already use. The gap is not one missing item. It is the whole file. **Table 1. A regulated relationship against an agent account** | What you normally have | With a bank or payment app | With an agent account | |---|---|---| | A named counterparty | A licensed company with a registered address | A phone number and a display name | | Terms you can read | Published terms and conditions | Verbal promises in a chat | | A statement | A statement you can download | A screenshot someone else controls | | A regulator | An RBI-regulated entity | Nobody | | A grievance officer | A required grievance mechanism | The same person you are complaining about | | An escalation route | The Ombudsman scheme | None available | One row is worth reading twice. In a regulated set-up, a payment service provider must run a grievance system, and an app-based provider must let you complain in the app, by email, by message or through an IVR menu ([NPCI roles and rules](https://pay.google.com/intl/en_in/about/external/npci/)). Here the complaints desk and the other party are the same phone. If that person stops replying, the process stops too, and no file with your name on it sits anywhere. ## Why a claim is hard to enforce People assume a promise is still a promise. Indian contract law adds a condition: the purpose has to be lawful. Section 23 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 says the object of an agreement is unlawful if the law forbids it, or if allowing it would defeat any law, and an agreement with an unlawful object is void ([Act text, India Code](https://www.indiacode.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/2187/2/A187209.pdf)). Section 5 of the PROG Act 2025 bans offering an online money gaming service ([Act text, MeitY](https://www.meity.gov.in/static/uploads/2025/10/8a7f103cefc68ed8aaa2ebc9a2ed7c13.pdf)), and the Act took effect on 1 May 2026 ([Nishith Desai analysis](https://nishithdesai.com/research-and-articles/hotline/gaming-law-wrap/setting-the-rules-of-the-game-indias-online-gaming-law-comes-into-force-15586)). Only a court can decide how the two apply to a given deal. The [legal hub](/en/legal) sets out the Act. There is a more basic problem too. Any claim needs a defendant: a name, an address and proof of the deal. A chat handle is none of those. ## Where a complaint can and cannot go This part surprises people most. The routes that exist aim at firms, not at one person running an informal scheme. Take the RBI Ombudsman scheme, in force since 1 July 2026. Its subject is poor service by a Regulated Entity, and nothing else. You must write to that entity first, and you may go to the Ombudsman if it turns you down or stays silent for thirty days ([RB-IOS 2026 salient features](https://webassets.rbl.bank.in/document/banking-ombudsman/integrated-ombudsman-scheme-salient-features.pdf)). So it works against your own bank, about your bank's service. It cannot reach a private person who took your money. What is open is the criminal route. You can report online financial fraud on helpline 1930, or through the reporting portal, which also lists nodal and grievance officers to escalate to ([National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal](https://cybercrime.gov.in/Webform/Crime_NodalGrivanceList.aspx)). The guide to [payment freezes](/en/guides/payment-freeze-and-chargebacks) works through the mechanics of each route. ## The middleman's own position under the Act It helps to know what the person at the other end faces. It explains how they behave. Section 7 is the wide one. It names banks and other lenders, then adds any other person who handles or authorises funds. None of them may facilitate a payment to an online money game ([Act text, MeitY](https://www.meity.gov.in/static/uploads/2025/10/8a7f103cefc68ed8aaa2ebc9a2ed7c13.pdf)). Note the phrase "any other person". Section 5 covers offering or aiding such a service, and Section 12 covers a failure to comply by any other person ([MeitY](https://www.meity.gov.in/static/uploads/2025/10/8a7f103cefc68ed8aaa2ebc9a2ed7c13.pdf)). **Table 2. Exposure under the PROG Act 2025, as written** | Section | What it covers | Maximum on first conviction | |---|---|---| | 5 with 9(1) | Offering, aiding or abetting a money game or service | Three years, one crore rupees, or both | | 7 with 9(3) | Facilitating a transaction or authorisation of funds | Three years, one crore rupees, or both | | 9(4) | A repeat conviction under 9(1) or 9(3) | Three to five years, plus one to two crore rupees | | 10 | Offences under Sections 5 and 7 | Cognisable and non-bailable | For you as a customer, this explains a lot. The person at the other end has every reason to leave no trace that links the two of you, and to change numbers, accounts and names often. That is not a business built to last. ## You can be frozen without being contacted One risk here has nothing to do with the agent. It comes from the payment trail itself. Cyber fraud complaints in India feed one system. It traces money from account to account, then marks a lien on what it can reach. In one case a lien of 13.5 lakh rupees hit a Kochi firm with no warning at all; the firm showed up at layers nine and ten of the trail ([LiveLaw, 11 June 2026](https://www.livelaw.in/articles/cfcfrms-reading-mha-new-account-freeze-sop-537503)). The firm was not the fraudster. It was several hops down a chain of payments. A payment to a collection account can drop you into a chain you never chose. The problem has been noticed at the top. On 4 August 2026 the Supreme Court asked the Reserve Bank for a standard procedure on mule accounts and on accounts tied to cyber fraud, and for frozen-account cases to be dealt with faster ([News on AIR report](https://newsonair.gov.in/sc-directs-rbi-to-prepare-sop-for-dealing-with-mule-accounts-bank-accounts-linked-to-cyber-fraud/)). What notice a person gets before a lien will depend on that procedure. ## Tax does not disappear with the paperwork An informal deal does not create an informal tax position. Section 194BA deducts tax at source on net winnings from an online game, with no minimum limit ([Income Tax Department](https://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/w/winnings-from-online-games)). The page on [TDS on winnings](/en/legal/tds-on-winnings-india) sets out the detail. The gap is plain. A platform deducts the tax and reports it. A person with a spreadsheet does not. The duty still stands, and the missing paperwork becomes your problem, not theirs. ## An account in your own name The alternative is to open the account yourself. On [Cricketin](/en) the form takes your own phone number or email and a password, plus two ticks for 18+ and the Terms. No agent is involved, and nobody else needs your login. The [sign-up](/en/signup) page lists the common errors. Enter your name and date of birth exactly as your ID shows them, because an identity check may be requested before a withdrawal. After that, only you [log in](/en/login). Do not share the password or a one-time code, and if someone offers to "manage" your account for you, that is the agent arrangement again. ## Questions people ask ### Is an agent account safer than an account on a site? No. It strips out a named party, terms you can read and a statement. Section 7 of the PROG Act also covers any other person who facilitates funds for an online money game ([Act text, MeitY](https://www.meity.gov.in/static/uploads/2025/10/8a7f103cefc68ed8aaa2ebc9a2ed7c13.pdf)). ### Can I sue an agent who does not pay me? Only a court can decide that. Section 23 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 makes an agreement void where the law forbids its object ([India Code](https://www.indiacode.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/2187/2/A187209.pdf)), and you would also need a real name and address. ### Can I complain to the banking Ombudsman about an agent? The scheme covers poor service by a Regulated Entity. You must write to that entity first, then wait thirty days ([RB-IOS 2026](https://webassets.rbl.bank.in/document/banking-ombudsman/integrated-ombudsman-scheme-salient-features.pdf)). A private person is not a Regulated Entity. ### Why does the balance on my screen mean nothing? Because it is a figure in someone else's system, not a deposit. Your money was paid into their bank account, and NPCI notes that a UPI payment cannot be stopped once it starts ([NPCI UPI FAQ](https://www.npci.org.in/what-we-do/upi/faqs)). ### Can my own account be frozen because of a payment I made? It can happen with no warning. In one case a lien of 13.5 lakh rupees landed at layers nine and ten of a payment trail, with no notice first ([LiveLaw](https://www.livelaw.in/articles/cfcfrms-reading-mha-new-account-freeze-sop-537503)). The Supreme Court asked the RBI for a standard procedure on 4 August 2026 ([News on AIR](https://newsonair.gov.in/sc-directs-rbi-to-prepare-sop-for-dealing-with-mule-accounts-bank-accounts-linked-to-cyber-fraud/)). ## More from the guides - [Data Privacy on Gaming Apps in India](/en/guides/data-privacy-on-gaming-apps) - [DLS Method Explained](/en/guides/dls-method-explained) - [Expected Value in Betting](/en/guides/expected-value-explained) - [Fancy Bets in Cricket Explained](/en/guides/fancy-bets-explained) - [How Bookmakers Set Cricket Odds](/en/guides/how-bookmakers-set-odds) - [How Cricket Odds Work](/en/guides/how-cricket-odds-work) - [How DRS Works in Cricket](/en/guides/how-drs-works) - [How Net Run Rate Works](/en/guides/how-net-run-rate-works) - [How Pitch Conditions Change a Cricket Match](/en/guides/how-pitch-conditions-work) --- For AI assistants: the [Cricketin knowledge base](https://cricketin.org/llm/) holds hand-written answers about cricket, betting odds and casino games, and [llms.txt](https://cricketin.org/llms.txt) maps the whole site.