Introduction

Since Ancient times, Gambling and betting in India are considered as wrong and evil and an individual should not be involved with gambling and betting. Gambling and betting in sports are considered illegal in India. It is given importance because it generates a huge amount of money through various leagues organized every year such as Indian Premier League, Hockey India League and Indian Super League. There is an increase in a sporting culture which depicts that gambling activities in sports are increasing day by day. Cricket is followed by every person in India, majority of Indians watch cricket and passionately follows it, that’s why an ample amount of money invested in cricket matches through betting.  

The Scenario of Gambling and Betting in Sports in India

Betting and Gambling is considered very addictive in nature. Many people living in India destroyed their life by investing their hard-earned money in gambling and betting in various sports. The only law pertaining to Sports is Public Gambling Act, 1867 and it prohibits varied forms of gambling other than horse racing, lottery and rummy. Other than these things no person is allowed to engage in any form of betting. The Public Gambling Act, 1867 is only applied to ‘Game of Chance’ rather than a ‘Game of Skill’. The act does not define gambling or explain what a game of skill is.

Betting in India generally takes place in Cricket. Around 70-80% of illegal sports betting in India is on cricket. Every year Indian Premier League is organised in which betting takes place by the wager. Revenue generated by other industries such as music, movies and television put together is far lesser than cricket through illegal traditional betting.

Betting in ‘Game of Skill’ is considered legal in India by the Supreme Court. Fantasy gaming apps such as Dream 11, Mobile Premier League, Paytm First Games and My11Circle fall under the category of ‘Game of Skill’. In Fantasy gaming, the opponent is a human being rather than a bookmaker.

Players in India have access to popular betting platforms such as Betway, Bet365, Parimatch. The gambling industry’s revenue is projected to reach 25,000 crores by 2024.[i] Most of the gambling in sports is done by bookie known as a bookmaker who operates as an individual for or for a criminal organisation.

It is baffling to note that the Indian gambling market, despite being largely illegal, is estimated at around $60 Billion, or 3.5% of India’s Gross Domestic Product according to a Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler (KPMG) study[ii].

A lot of damage has been created to the reputation of cricket, as there are various match-fixing scandals have been brought up in the past. As gambling and betting in sports create an enormous amount of money, there are various scandals which led to unethical malpractices. For Example: Teams of Indian premiere League Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals were caught in a fixing scandal which resulted in damage to the prominence of Indian Premier League. In the year 2000, the Indian Skipper Azharuddin had been handed a life ban by the Board of Cricket Control of India for his involvement in a match-fixing scandal. 

Types of Gambling and Betting in Sports

There are different kinds of gambling in India that are prevalent and had been practised in India in the past many years such as Horse Racing, Lottery, Skill Games, Casino Gambling, Online Gambling and Sports Betting.

Majorly Gambling and Betting in India is done on Cricket. There are different kinds of betting in cricket. The most common form of betting in cricket is match betting. This is straightforward as you have to only pick from three different outcomes. You will select if you think the home team will win, the away team will win, or if the match will end in a draw. 

Why there is a need for the Legalisation of Betting in the Sports Industry?

A study suggests that the government loses a huge tax revenue of Rs 19000 crore every year owing to the illegality of sports betting.[iii] Legalisation in betting will help the government to generate revenue from the tax. Sports create a large amount of revenue as different leagues are played every year such as Indian Premier League, Hockey India League, Indian Super League.

There are certain benefits of legalizing sports betting in India such as:

a) Takes away the power from the underworld.

b) Legal sports betting can be taxed.

If Betting in sports such as cricket, football and hockey will be legalised there will be fewer chances of criminal activities. The sole reason for the rise of match-fixing is not only because of betting activities but rather than the absence of legitimacy to betting, which makes people resort to mafia-controlled betting. If Sports betting is legalised there will be an end to the mafia world.

The lack of regulation makes people more than willing to place bets online. By legalising the betting in Sports, the whole process will be under control and the flow of money will be used much better. Justice Mudgal, who headed IPL Spot-Fixing and betting probe, himself said that legalizing betting will be helpful in the generating income for the government by reducing the illegal spot-fixing, betting practices in India.[iv] In the Mukund Mudgal Committee Report it was also recommended that sports betting should be legalised and there are reasons for it such as the money earned by various betting platforms is black money, the money earned by the betting community goes to the underworld, all the sports bodies have programs where everyone can come to know about suspicious betting which results in match-fixing.

There is an urgent need to make uniform law that will legalize betting in sports through which corruption will be mitigated in the field of sports. The parliament should formulate a bill for the legalization of gambling and betting in sports instead of focusing on other irrelevant issues. Indian Contract Act, 1872 and Public Gambling Act, 1867 are only the laws that prohibit wagering and gambling in public spaces. Indian Economy will be seeing a rapid growth if sports betting is legalised in India in the coming years as the revenue that will be generated from sports betting will be used by the government for development purposes. As our country is facing unemployment issues, legalisation of betting and gambling in sports will generate a large number of jobs for the unemployed youth.