What is Betting?
Betting in India has always remained illegal, yet that hasn’t stopped the activities to continue with full galore. With IPL coinciding with elections and the upcoming World Cup is on its way, betting in India is going on in a full fledged way. But, in a twist of fate, it seems that the election betting has slyly overtaken the cricket betting. This especially comes us a surprise, since it is seen to be a very sports related activity, and with two major tournaments like the IPL 2019 and the ICC World Cup, it would seem only logical that people betting on cricket is more.
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Betting is an activity that we all have engaged in at least once It might be something as smack as betting 50 rupees with your sibling on whether KKR will qualify to the playoffs to not. While this might be illegal, betting has become India’s favourite sport, and till recently it was heavily dominated by sports betting. With IPL 2019, general elections and ICC Cricket World Cup dominating the first phase of the year, it is without a doubt that the underground sector is booming.
In a recently reported news, a bookie had claimed that usually during IPL season, 95% of votes are cricket related, whereas this time around it is only 20–25% cricket related the rest being taken away by the elections.
Cricket betting is usually dominated by small daily bets, revolving mainly around who will win today’s IPL 2019 Final, or who will score a hundred, or whether a particular player bowl a maiden over or not. Yet, in case of elections the bets are even larger and bigger, since they are about the future of the country and not just merely about different matches that are played everyday. IPL 2019 finishes on 12th May and the election results are declared on 23rd May, after that it will all be focused on circlet related betting with the ICC cricket world cup commencing from 30th May.
The cricket World Cup begins at the end of May and it is always a big event for us,” says a Rajasthan-based bookie. “Bets on who will reach the final, whether Virat will be the leading run scorer, and the result of the India-Pak game have already started coming in,” he adds. When the World Cup begins, the daily bets will start too. In the 2015 World Cup, bets worth about Rs 50,000 crore were made. Bookies say this World Cup will eclipse that number easily. The great Indian betting summer will continue.
How betting works?
Now while most of us are aware of this underground nexus of sports betting, but the layman is not aware is about the how of betting, that is how are bets placed? Who regulates them?
In case of India most of the betting about cricket or election take place through a telephone. Bookies are reached through call, text or WhatsApp and they then reveal the odds for a particular bet. While cash is usually an accepted form of transaction when it comes to smaller bets, but if the amount crosses a lakh, many offshore accounts are also used.
Since betting is strictly illegal in India, most of the legal betting apps or sites do not allow individuals in India to place bets, but some British sites to make the exceptions which makes it possible for Indians to place bets even when they are residing in India.
What are Odds?
The odds for a bet can be either determined in fractions or decimals. The odds are what determines how much more money one will get if they bet on something. For example, if a bookies says that the odds of Mumbai Indians winning the IPL are 3.50, it means that if your bet- that Mumbai indeed wins IPL 2019, then you will get 3.5 times the money you use to bet. Like if your bet 1000 rupees, you are bound to get back 3500 rupees.
When odd are given in fractions, they denote the profit you make on winning the bet. So, a 9/4 odds of Chennai winning the IPL 2019 means a bet of Rs 400 will give you profit of Rs 900 (making your total earnings Rs 1300). The odds keep shifting and changing as the tournament or elections progress.
The unusual bets
However, not all bets are so straightforward and simple. There are many odd and unusual bets that are places especially in the sporting industry. Most of the money is actually placed through usual bets. Like- odds on whether any on elf the fast bowlers of the Indian team will get injured or not is about 3.00.
What does the Law Say
Betting especially in Sports is an extremely common and known phenomenon. Taking this into consideration Law Commission recommended the government to legalise betting on sports in India. Yet the government has taken no such steps as of yet.
The Seventh Schedule of the Indian Constitution gives this right to the Indian states to make laws and policies regarding “gambling and betting”, which means that the law regarding this is different from state to state. However, no matter what physical betting on sports, which is offline betting is completely outlawed and governed under various laws including The Public Gambling Act, 1867, and the Prize Competition Act, 1955.
However, there is no law as of yet in India that directly regulates and tackles online betting in India. The IT Act, 2000, does not specifically talk about online betting. While no proper clarification has come from the Indian courts and government about the validity and legality of it through apps on sports, the government has clearly stated that they are not in favour of extending support to any of the sports betting apps.
One exception to this law is the state of Sikkim which is the only state that allows online betting through the Sikkim Online Gaming (Regulations) Rules, 2009.On the other hand, Delhi and Maharashtra have some of the toughest laws against online betting. In its 2018 report, the Law Commission of India recommended that gambling and betting on sports in India be legalised, saying it would help prevent fraud and generation of black money, and also generate revenue. The government hasn’t adopted the recommendation so far.
Originally published at Sporcial.
