IPL betting ran into Rs 10,000 crore in Bengaluru
BENGALURU: IndiaN Premier League (IPL) has been a season for punters to test their luck and even abetted some suicides.According to intelligence sources, a whopping Rs 10,000 crore was transacted in betting in Bengaluru alone during the just concluded 10th edition of IPL.
Betting which is illegal in India has been a challenge for the police to check, with punters using 35 mobile applications and websites for communications and exchanging encrypted messages.
What surprised the police is that the demonetisation of high value currency notes did not curb betting this year despite expectations to the contrary.
Police sources said betting was rampant in the city during IPL and the recent seizure of Rs 31,000 and two mobile phones during a raid on a house in Subramanyanagar police station limits was just the tip of the iceberg.
On how cricket betting works, the sources said a punter contacts a local bookie with whom he invests money. The local bookie has direct or indirect contacts with the main bookie who sits in some part of the world and decides on the odds of the match.
“The prime bookies maintain a trustworthy image in finances and match result predictions. Bettors believe that the bookies predict match results logically,” a source added.
This business runs on trust as there is no documentation in it. The bettor who loses money cannot complain as he is also an offender legally.
Many suspect that bookies have direct links with a few persons who can change the game, like curators who can slow down the pitch by excess watering.The involvement of officials in the racket was exposed after Uttar Pradesh police arrested alleged bookies in Ghaziabad and seized Rs 70,000 in an IPL betting case recently. The arrests came two days after betting rings were busted in Kanpur. Police also busted betting rings in Delhi’s Shahdara area.
City Police Commissioner Praveen Sood said tracing any kind of gambling has become a tough job as most of them happen online or over phone calls. “We have been tracking online too but it is a big challenge, as many of them carry out with no identity”, he said.
Betting and deaths
December 2011: Sreedeep Gowda (26) who borrowed D3 lakh from his parents lost the money in cricket betting and committed suicide in Yeshwantpura.
Dec 2015: Upset over her husband’s cricket betting habit and harassed to bring dowry, Shilpa (29) committed suicide.
Major seizures
May 9, 2017: Alleged betting racketeer Sudhakar arrested at Rajajinagar and D1.76 lakh seized.
May 6: CCB police raid a cricket betting den on Magadi Road, arrest Afroz Pasha and seize D2.60 lakh.
May 1: Three people - Nagesh, Ravi and Uday Shetty - arrested during a raid and D1.25 lakh seized.
May 15, 2015: City police arrest nine people and seize D19.27 lakh during simultaneous raids on three cricket betting syndicates linked to a Mumbai-based bookie. Investigation reveal the use of hawala channels for transactions.
September 2014: CCB raid F1 Woods Apartments at Sultanplaya, arrest four main bookies and seize
D23.28 lakh. The syndicate was allegedly making hawala transac tions to people in Rajasthan and Mumbai who in turn channeled the money to undisclosed destinations in Middle East, mostly Dubai.