LEGALISED GAMBLING?
Mumbai to be Las Vegas
Style Legal Gambling Heaven, reports
NEERAJ MAHAJAN from NEW DELHI
 
IF THE Maharashtra
Government, International Cricket Council (ICC), Board of Cricket
Control in India (BCCI), Indian Premier League (IPL) and international
betting agencies have their way, Mumbai – will soon become a Las Vegas
or Nevada (US) style legalized gambling heaven.
The obvious
rationale behind this move is that even without – a legal framework or
acceptance, Mumbai continues to be the hub centre for most illegal
gambling activities in India. If all this is legalized, the
underworld’s role will be marginalized, malpractices will be removed
and the whole trade will be brought under a regulatory framework. The
government too would obviously stand to benefit from the revenue
collected as taxes.
Surprisingly one of
immediate provocation for this move is the recently concluded Indian
Premier League’s 20:20 cricket series. According to one estimate the
new avatar of cricket accounted for Rs 10,000-12,000 crore worth of
betting during the entire tournament.
All this amounts to
big money considering the all-India average of Rs 2,000-2,500 crore (Rs
20-25 billion) worth of bets placed per match, depending on the teams
involved. Of this Mumbai alone accounts for nearly Rs 700-1,000 crore
(Rs 7-10 billion) of betting volumes per match.
While most of these
operations are controlled by Mumbai, some of the other prominent
centres are Jaipur, Kolkata, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Chennai.
The big fish
in Mumbai are in turn networked with their bosses abroad.
There are bets on
everything, from the toss to the match results -- which team or player
will bat/bowl first and runs to be scored on the first ball. There are
bets on the outcome of every ball and each over besides huge odds on
unlikely events such as hat-tricks, fifties and centuries.
Each bookie is
assigned a well defined territory within which he can collect the bets
from. A new comer or stranger is not allowed to bet, till he comes up
with a reference from an existing customer. Some of the bookies also
hire small-time operators to function as brokers and collecting
agents. They collect money from those who want to place their bets.
The payment is made within 24 hours of the betting. The money is
either given to the bookie at his office, or at some meeting point.
Some of the bookies have a place, such as the paanwallah or
chaiwallah in their particular area, where the money is given or
collected. Interestingly there is an Indian angle to most of the
international cricket controversies in the recent times - even those
involving match fixing by international players. The extent of illegal
betting in India first came to light in 2000 during the match-fixing
scandal involving former South Africa captain Hansie Cronje, former
India captain Mohammad Azharuddin and bookie Mukesh Gupta. Hansie
Cronje was allegedly linked with Sanjeev Chawla. Fleming was
reportedly approached by Aushim Khetrapal. Last year, West Indies all
rounder Marlon Samuels allegedly swapped match information with
bookmaker Mukesh Kochar in return for a paid hotel room in Mumbai at
the end of the tour. All this shows the deep rooted involvement of
betting in the game of Cricket.
Significantly the
Government of Maharashtra is considering a proposal by UK bookmakers
Ladbrokes to bring betting shops to the streets of Mumbai. This is
being seen as fallout of a detailed presentation by UK bookmaker
Ladbrokes on the benefits of sports betting to Deputy Chief Minister R
R Patil and officials in the Home Ministry last month.
Presently as per the
Bombay Wager Act in Maharashtra except for betting in horserace, which
is legalized - betting in other sports though rampant is illegal.
However in UK—the
original home of the gentleman’s game, betting is legal. As a result
quite a few international betting agencies, including Ladbrokes and
Betfair—are doing roaring business in gambling, officially that too
with a chain of offices all over the world. In fact Ladbroke Racing
Ltd. is the world's largest legal betting Corporation and legal
bookmaking is a $6 billion-a-year industry in UK. Four major chains
that dominate the bookie trade - Ladbroke, William Hill, Coral and
Mecca - can be seen in almost every town and village in the country.
These very agencies
are now involved in building up a public opinion campaign and
mustering support of the government and sport administrators for
legalizing gambling in cricket.
In fact, Ladbrokes
which has started a separate betting section on the IPL with odds
offered on each game and key performances—has approached several
senior Indian Premier League officials for their help in a campaign to
make sports betting legal in India.
Another UK-based
sports betting agency Betfair proved to be more proactive and has
tried to rope in ICC's principal advisor-designate I S Bindra, who
also heads the Punjab Cricket Association and sits as a board member
on the Indian Premier League council. In addition to discussing a
possible blueprint for legalized betting in India, senior Betfair
officials reportedly also had a conference call with Manoj Badale, the
UK-based co-owner of the IPL's Jaipur franchise and other IPL owners
to build public opinion on this issue before approaching the
government of India with their proposal.
Significantly Bindra
who in his capacity as a senior ICC official, should have stayed
neutral till the policy matter was decided by the Government of India
and the highest cricketing bodies, went all over town, like a Betfair
spokesman prescribing legalized betting as a “prescription medicine
for preventing the disease" of match-fixing and corruption in cricket.
Bindra reportedly justified this on the ground that government can
easily earn anywhere close to Rs 5,000-7,000 crore as entertainment
duty just by legalizing sports betting.
“By that logic, the
government should also legalize the drug trade, prostitution and so
many other things—to augment the total tax collection”, commented a
police official.
Significantly
another voice in favour of legal gambling came from Sameer Kochhar, TV
anchor turned actor who plays a cop in Mahesh Bhatt’s film ‘Jannat’ on
match fixing but his sentiments are not shared by many of the bookies.
The bookies believe that if and when the trade becomes legal, they
might have to pay exorbitant taxes and bribes to policemen and
politicians.
Another viewpoint
worth mentioning is that if gambling becomes legal, there will be a
proliferation of gambling joints in big and small towns and several
poor and middle-class families would get addicted to betting
activities. And if they lose, their family would suffer. Legalizing
will surely increase the volume of betting, making it an uncontrolled
social menace," said a senior police official, who requested
anonymity.
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