With just three days left for the Lok Sabha election results, there is a marked increase in betting, according to police officers here.
Apart from money, people bet mobile phones, land, tractors and various other materials on various parties and candidates.
At villages, people keep their tractors, sofa sets, cattle, wrist watch, home and kitchen appliances and other essential commodities on betting. “Earlier, villagers used to keep bullock carts on betting. But these days tractors have replaced them. Each tractor costs around `5 lakh,” an officer said. In some cases, doubling or tripling of the money is promised. Whereas in urban areas, most of the betting involves money.
“In some of the cases, betting involves sponsored trips to domestic and international destinations. The one who loses the bet has to sponsor the trip to the winner,” the officer said. According to the police officer, these cases are difficult to tackle as the travel agent, who would also act as middleman, would not reveal as betting is of benefit to their business.On types of betting, the officer said there are various levels of it.
“Some bet on candidates at their constituency level. Some bet on number of seats parties will win in state and Centre. Some bet on party leaders (this time it is Narendra Modi vs Rahul Gandhi vs Arvind Kejriwal),” the officer added.
Some go further. They bet on victory margin or lose the election. In Karnataka, people are betting on the BJP or Congress candidates.
Third Party Betting
The officer said third party betting is common. “Both the parties involving in the act keep the betting money with a third party.
This is to ensure that if one of them lose, money will be given to the winner. This, according to them, will avoid cheating,” he said.
The third party who acts as middleman would get some commission from the winner, the officer said.The senior police officer said it is difficult to tackle betting and it takes place over phone in many places.When contacted, Bangalore Police Commissioner Raghavendra Auradkar said election betting is similar to cricket betting.
“Betting happens at various levels. We take action against those involved in the act,” he said, refusing to divulge more information.