New Delhi Post Exclusive Investigation
Online Gambling and Betting is illegal in India, a well-known fact to the cricket frenzy people but in India, Offshore betting companies are openly playing with the lives of the people, duping the people of their hard earned money by roping in some of the most famous Bollywood film stars who are continuously promoting Cricket Betting companies for a few lakh rupees.
In the first part of the investigation, New Delhi Post reveals several Bollywood actors blatantly violating the law of the country by promoting illegal betting sites.
“Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Sunil Shetty, Tamannaah Bhatia, Urvashi Rautela, Kajal Agarwal, Adah Sharma, Kanika Mann, Sonam Bajwa, Kriti Kharbanda and Anushka Sen are a few of the shining stars of the Indian film industry who blatantly promote illegal online gaming sites.”
The reason is clear, these illegal betting companies are operating in India as they have the support of political outfits and they pay these outfits a handsome amount as donations, which New Delhi Post will reveal in the next part.
Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the advertisement goes on to the level of saying that the company he is promoting is “India’s only legal and Licensed betting company.” But he did not divulge details as to which law legalized it in India and who gave the license. Neither he himself cross checked it before accepting the offer of being the face of the betting company. So is the case with other artists doing the advertisements. He just read what was given to him shedding all societal responsibilities as an actor
There have been several cases in India where after losing the entire savings in such betting’s people have committed suicide wo could not withstand the pressure of such huge losses. Their families are devastated and ruined and lost entire family savings, but these actors in the most vulgar manner promote such illegal activities and there is no one to question them. Neither the Enforcement Directorate has ever grilled them nor any other government department concerned. Their arrest is inevitable if they are held accountable for promoting illegal activities of these offshore betting companies.
“As a matter of fact, the government gets donations from these Offshore Betting companies, that is why the government prefers to turn a blind eye on illegal gambling and betting in cricket. In the upcoming investigation, which was done in a span of a month, New Delhi Post undercover journalist K Ashish travelled around six thousand kilometers to unravel the truth and investigated more than a dozen companies operating from Mumbai-Ahmedabad and Bangalore.”
An economic think-tank opines that the estimated size of the online betting industry in India is around Rs 8,20,000 crore of which 80%-90% accounts for gambling in cricket matches. The business, however, stands on shaky legal grounds. Experts point out that it is operating through loopholes in regulation, which leave users exposed to fraud by betting platforms. The most striking aspect of online betting apps is that they have created an easy pathway to gambling on live sports, which is illegal in India.
The legality of gambling in India hinges on the distinction between game of skill and game of chance. Games of skill, in which players use their memory, knowledge, judgement or expertise to make decisions, are constitutionally protected by a 1996 Supreme Court Judgement. But games of chance, where outcomes are based on luck, enjoy no such protection. In 2022, the Supreme Court held that fantasy sports were games of skill. But that is not the case with betting on live sports.
The outcome of this undercover operation is enough to shake the conscience of the people who think that this is a path for acquiring easy money. On the contrary, these companies not only made money by selling the data of the people but also made the people poorer by addicting them to gambling and betting through these apps.
Match fixing and betting in cricket has a long history. The most famous betting cases in India are the Hansie Cronje match-fixing scandal in 2000 the came the IPL spot-fixing scandal in 2013 followed by Pakistan spot-fixing scandal in 2010 and again the IPL betting racket in 2019. But the betting continues unabated.
“The first case of cricket betting was in 2000, when the conversation between South African cricketer Hansie Cronje and Sanjeev Chawla was taped by Delhi Police and for the first time the world came to know that cricket matches can be fixed. However, during the course of the investigation, Hansie Cronje died in a plane crash and on the other side, the tapes of Delhi Police gathered dust in CBI’s Forensic Lab.”
After the death of Cronje, it was established that matches are fixed in cricket. Former cricketer Manoj Prabhakar was continuously making such allegations on Indian cricket players in which the shocking name of World Cup winner Kapil Dev came to the fore. After the incident of 2000, Tehelka Magazine journalist Aniruddha Bahal along with Manoj Prabhakar prepared a widely acclaimed investigative documentary “Fallen Heroes: The Betrayal of a Nation” on cricket betting controversy.
In this documentary which shook the world, cricketer Ravi Shastri and many leaders accepted that matches are fixed in cricket. In this revelation, the role of cricketer Kapil Dev, Mohammad Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja and Ajay Sharma came to the fore.
