BENGALURU: There is an ill-kept secret at the Bangalore Turf Club — that illegal betting is rampant and runs into crores of rupees. It cumulatively exceeds Rs 1,000 crore annually, and is four to five times the volume of BTC’s total legal betting business, said one source.
Illegal betting is carried out clandestinely by a network of unscrupulous bookmakers and is based out of different places. Sources said there are regular known participants, and the bets are advertised by word of mouth and introductions.
A person who bets on a certain horse takes a position, and offers the odds. The difference amount is paid after the race is over. TNIE spoke to a punter anonymously and found that some of them opt only for legal betting because everything is transparent, though the volume of illegal business is huge.
BTC Chairman Arvind Raghavan said, “It is a serious issue and we need to do something.” He said it thrives because of the high tax -- the winner has to pay 28 per cent GST on the winnings. “Who would want to pay such a high volume of tax? BTC revenues have dropped from Rs 1,800 crore per annum to just Rs 300 crore per annum,’’ Raghavan added.
A senior bureaucrat who served in the commercial taxes department said, “Bookmakers duping the government is nothing new. When Veerappa Moily was chief minister, betting tax was brought in. When we realised the bookmakers were duping the government and it was impossible to follow individual transactions, we went ahead and levied a turnover tax on the bookies. It worked and the government made some revenue.’’
Former police commissioner Bhaskar Rao had this to say: “The system is aware of it. When I was police commissioner, I had informed the GST and other authorities about it. The system works because of a serious lack of economic intelligence and a flaw in the rules because the Central Crime Branch cannot go after it.’’
A senior serving police officer in the city police who preferred not to be quoted said, “There is no complaint on this issue so far.’’ Illegal betting is not without risks for punters. One punter who has been a regular at the races for over 20 years, said he has never taken a bet illegally. “I simply don’t trust them. If the bookie disappears because he has run up heavy losses, then who do I chase? I have seen punters suffer after taking a bet with an illegal bookie, but you can go neither to the BTC authorities nor the police.’’
Sources said everyone is not so cautious and approach illegal bookmakers simply because if they win Rs 1 lakh, they don’t have to pay Rs 28,000 as tax, which is incentive enough to go for illegal betting, they said.