Delhi, India – The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry held a conference in Delhi last week to discuss the question of sports betting regulation in India.
At present sports betting is illegal in India, with the exception of two sports. The first being Horse Racing which can be bet on both on course and off course. The second is golf, which is looked on as a game of skill. However, competitors may only bet on themselves and betting on professional golf tournaments is still illegal.
However, as countries around the world begin to successfully regulate and legalise their gaming industries, the issue has become a topic of discussion within India's media and political forums. Therefore last week a number of leading legal, political and gambling industry experts met to discuss the issue of regulating sports betting within India.
Lawyers from UK law firm Squire Sanders who expertise in gaming law were present along with BJP MP Kirti Azad, who played in the Indian cricket team that won the 1983 World Cup. Justice Mukul Mudgal was also present in a crowd which argued a resounding yes to the question as to whether sports gambling should be legalised.
The three major arguments for legalising sports betting were made very clear at the conference and there was little opposition to them. They consisted firstly that tax revenue would increase, criminality would decrease and finally that match fixing would decrease.
The general opinion was that the Indian gambling market was worth 300,000 crore rupees and that the government would be able to yield anywhere between 12,000 and 20,000 crore rupees from that in tax. This would also deprive the criminal underworld of that 300,000 crore rupees.
The result of depriving the criminal world of India of 300,000 crore Rupees a year would be immense. The vast profits that are currently collected by mafia bosses are used to expand other areas of their criminal rackets and can even fund terrorism. By taking away this source of revenue from India's underworld, Indian society would take a huge step forward in ridding itself of organised crime.
Finally, by being able to properly record and watch betting markets it would become far easier to catch those implicated in match fixing and cheating in sports. Cricket has been tarred both on an international level as well as in the IPL over allegations of match fixing. By operating betting markets in a legal and regulated arena then it would become possible to notice irregular market changes and to protect both the innocent betting public as well as at the same time incriminating the culprits.
The evidence is stacked in the favour of regulation and this was summed up by Squire Sanders lawyer, Carl Rohsler when he said “This is not a question of whether sports betting should be regulated in India, this is a question of how sports betting should be regulated in India.”
Despite the overwhelming support in favour of legalising gambling, when it came to estimating how long it would take the government to implement such measures experts were pessimistic. The general view was that because it required constitutional change and a movement from state to federal governance, the law changes would take at least 10 years to implement.
The strong anti-gambling conservative lobbies hold too much power and are eager to oppose any movements towards a further regulation of sports gambling in India. Although they have flawed and illogical arguments, they still curry favour and it will require a huge movement in Indian society's perception of gambling for their to be progress made in the coming years.
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