Can’t stop it? Bet on legalising it

Bengaluru: The spot-fixing and betting scandal involving the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president, N. Srinivasan and a dozen cricketers has hogged headlines nationwide, but all the hullabaloo doesn’t seem to have put the brakes on illegal betting, which continues to thrive with a dozen bookies from mainly Delhi and Mumbai, handling it across India.

The kingpin operates from Ahmedabad, Gujarat, fixing the rates depending on who are the current favourites. The rates spontaneously change with each ball played. Meanwhile, the punters located in various states and cities gamble on the base rate. The bookie has nothing to lose as the loss or gain is borne by the punters  across the nation. He himself gets his cut through hawala which could either be counted in peti (in lakhs) or in khokhas (in crores).

In Karnataka betting is most in vogue in Bengaluru, Mangalore, Udupi, Mysore, and Hubli-Dharwad among several other big towns. On an average 80 to 100 cases of illegal betting are booked by the city police every year and in the recent past the City Crime Branch police has booked five to six cases of illegal betting. While many betting rings have been busted in  localities like Chickpet, Kengeri, Rajarajeshwari Nagar and Sanjay Nagar over the last two years, the sleuths of the crime branch have become even more alert to punters of late with the IPL matches now underway.

But catching them red-handed is hard as the punters and bookies use seven or eight inexpensive phones which they call dabbas to accept bets and keep track of the rates and odds. The rates and changing odds are texted to those who place the bets. “They don’t use their home phones but instead book a lodge close to a particular cell phone tower to do all the bookings and arrangements. The calls are usually on a one-on-one basis between the punter and the individual doing the betting,” reveals a source. Once the match ends, the ‘agents’ step in to collect the money and deliver it to the bookies. “The collection point is usually an anonymous shop,” adds the source.

The betting is not confined to the sub continent, however as there are hubs in the UK, South Africa and the Gulf countries. In India too there are online betting sites like Betting 365, Bet Online and Betfair, which accept the bets in Indian rupees. The minimum rate starts with Rs 3000 given by a bookie and with every ball the rate changes. The entire gamble is played independently by the individual doing the betting. Bookies too bet on the favourite team  selected on the basis of probability to make their share of money.

More often than not, the betting money is never really recovered even in a raid and the police find no trace of the transactions as everything is done verbally.

“The money that is recovered in a raid is deposited in a court. However, nothing much ever comes out as the law is not stringent enough. The maximum that the guilty have  to pay is a couple of thousands to walk out on bail. One habitual better, known as HRT, against whom we have booked three cases so far, hasn't stopped betting even now. The man had the audacity to tell us that he would bet no matter where he was. We first caught him operating out of Rajarajeshwari Nagar, then Kengeri and now he is working out of Chennai,” reveals a Special Inquiry Squad sleuth.

Betting cases

April 25, 2014:
Four men were arrested from Kamlanagar and Rajrajeshwarinagar for betting on IPL-7 and five mobiles, Rs 4,33,000 in cash and a Santro car seized.

April 12, 2012:  
Ten persons were arrested by the Basavangudi police for running a betting racket from a lodge. A television, 11 mobile phones and Rs 93,300 in cash were seized.

April 29, 2012:
Three persons were arrested from Annapurneshwari Layout, NGEF Layout and Mylasandra and cash of Rs 1.05 lakh, a television, a laptop, and seven mobile phones recovered.

Those caught get away with small fines

Curbing betting is not easy as under the Karnataka Police Act, all the offender has to do is pay a small sum to walk out on bail. “As soon as you catch them, they get away by  paying a small fine. So may be the government should legalize betting in India like the UK,” suggest DCP (Crime), Abhishek Goyal.

Ask him about online betting and he says it not  much in vogue in the state although there is no denying that some do opt for it . “What we have seen is people who bet have some stakes running but the transactions don’t happen. It is done only through hawala or hard cash,’’ he says, identifying Hubli as a major hub of illegal betting in the state,  comparable to even Delhi and Mumbai.

“The kingpins run lines from the state which are purchased by small bookies. The stakes are later given online. But it is tough to nab those involved in the racket as it is spread across geographical boundaries. For instance, when the bookies do betting from UK where it is legal, the geographical boundary becomes a hindrance to nabbing them,” he notes, adding, “Nonetheless, once we have information from ground intelligence, we conduct raids to bust such rings. So far, we have busted around three to four betting rackets and have recovered around Rs 5 lakh.”

The betting language

The IPL betting racket has led to the coining of new terminologies and codes like ball-to-ball, lambi, sessions, jackpot, donoh 90, and dead-match. While ball-to-ball betting is self explanatory, lambi means betting on the total score at the end of the 20 overs. Should a person bet on a total of 170 or 174, and  the teams makes 172 at the end of the 20 overs, he hits the jackpot and doubles his money.

Sessions refers to betting on one session, say the first seven or 10 overs, where the bet is placed on the score, wickets falling, run-rate and so on. The odds for a match are here determined by paise against a rupee. If the bookie says dunoh 90, it means they are even. If he says 73 paise then there are odds of the winner getting 73 paise against every rupee he bets.

Legalising betting only way out?

Some believe legalising betting could stamp out corruption in cricket. If betting is regulated in India, it could potentially fund sports development, social protection or welfare schemes and infrastructure development plans besides proving a good source of revenue to the government, they argue.

Former India captain, Rahul Dravid was one of the first to advocate legalising betting after four of his team members from Rajasthan Royals were caught for joining hands with the betting syndicate.

A top police officer

Legitimate betting eliminates hawala operators and the mafia, and brings in revenue for the government which would otherwise have gone to anti-social elements. World over there is betting in sports regulated by  governments like in the USA.