New Delhi, April 15 -- Banned betting sites are piggybacking on popular platforms again, as India's taxmen and regulators play whack-a-mole with shady operators from distant shores.

Betting ads have popped up on grocery app Zepto and on taxis operated by an Uber fleet provider, while items branded 1xBat, a mirror name for betting app 1xBet, sell on Amazon. Ads have also appeared on ATMs, billboards, metro stations as well as in print.

India has banned and blocked hundreds of offshore gambling platforms, but many of them still operate through so-called mirror sites-replicas of the original with a near-identical URL, and hosted on a different server.

Meanwhile, many celebrities endorse and keep the betting platforms in public view, while...