There is carnage on stock exchanges around the world, in Mumbai the Sensex which not so long ago was over 20,000 points has plunged to the depths of 12,000 and predicted to go lower. Common man has lost years of accumulated wealth. Stock exchange in final analysis today is nothing worse than an ordinary gambling den where common man is taken to cleaners by the informed few. It amazes me why people invest into known/ unknown companies, whose decision makers may be having a scotch, priced over rupee thousand a peg in a fifty five thousand luxury Taj suite all on public money and taking a stupid alcoholic decision that will make the investor's rue over their misfortune.
It is therefore not surprising that people are turning to cricket and horse racing betting in a big way. They are safer avenues of making quick money, the people have control of what they are doing, and how much they are risking and are thus not wiped out like they are at stock exchanges. Many shopkeepers have television sets installed and follow, IPL/ICL/ODI'S and Test cricket in any part of the world. People have live access to happenings at the turf clubs all around the nation.
An article in BBC estimated India to be eight highest in volumes of betting in the world. Cricket betting is into billions of Rupees. All a bookmaker needs is a mobile phone and he is in business, the laws are lax enough in India to prove a deterrent to rampant existence of illegal bookmaking in every nook and corner of the nation. We cannot stop them, so the issue is why not legalize betting?
The answer is that this is simply more than a business decision, it a moral decision too. Though we have shaken away most of the socialist tags, this taboo regarding betting remains, in legalizing it a few intelligent 'fear' will drive people to gambling. Quite 'quixotically' they close eyes to millions wagering today. Many Indians advocate legalising the betting system, known as satta, to generate revenue for the government. Volume of money involved in it can make government can earn a lot from cricket betting through entertainment and other taxes if they legalise it like betting on horse-races, this was said by an advisor to the Central Board of Direct Taxes. He however forgot to add the government earnings from horse racing are limited from on course betting, while hundred times over is the turnover in horse racing outside the race course.
BBC article of 2001, link www.news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/england/1723667.stm spells out the amount involved in an India England series to be to the tune of 400 million Pounds, that's equivalent to roughly 3400 crores Indian rupees. Just Imagine the turnover in India Pakistan or India Australia games or even in The IPL.
Today if we add up, cricket betting volume in India is almost 2.2 lac crores a year, almost 45 billion USD, add to this the unnofficial race betting volume, then betting is already a 52 billion dollar Industry in India.
So perhaps to save a few from being driven to gambling the government is losing 5 t0 8 billion in taxes that could be utilized for public good like the UK National lottery does, the amounts are huge, tax collected from gambling during one year can modernize the whole Indian police and arm them with latest tools. Tax collected from betting can develop infrastructure where it is very necessary and can change the face of the nation.
However I don't perceive government to legalize betting soon, the political parties are into vote bank politics and any party that will move to legalize betting will face opposition from other parties and moral forces in the country.
Prudent legalization of betting means a time when all malls will have betting kiosks, and many panwalas will have digital equipment to make collections and payouts , and all this will make the government richer in billions of Dollars, but sadly the stigma attached to the issue makes even the wise resist tapping this wealth which would be for the general good of India.
Legal Betting will make government earn even more as illegal havala system in place for bettors settling will be done away with. There will be reduced money laundering and finally the money will not be channelized through groups that cause the nations security a live threat.
Moral Policing has never ended prostitution, various lawmakers of different nations have been known to have paid for commercial sex. No one stopped drinking during prohibition, even on dry days, people drink. Moral policing is absurd especially since money is a need of all free humans, and speculation is a behavior that is in all humans. All business have speculation embedded in them. Like any other so called social evil, gambling will never go. The Dharamraja Yudhisthar in Mahabharata was keen gambler. The gambling Industry is very ancient.
Legally registered bookmakers can help government fight illegalities that crop up in sports. Match-fixing or making a race, it will become easier to fight these evils with transparency that will arrive with legal status to bookmaking.As long as betting is conducted in legal and transparent manner it will benefit all.
However at no point of time in history, gambling could have enriched a nation so much, in fact from the tax collected the government can set out a fund for pathological gamblers and rehabilitate them. Singapore is coming up with a Casino, where if a wife reports that her husband cannot play, he will be barred. There always will be methods to deal with problems. Today the time is ripe for the government to tap in the revenue that legalization of betting can generate. As an industry it will open new jobs and a ripple effect of wealth will touch all parts of the nation.
It is therefore not surprising that people are turning to cricket and horse racing betting in a big way. They are safer avenues of making quick money, the people have control of what they are doing, and how much they are risking and are thus not wiped out like they are at stock exchanges. Many shopkeepers have television sets installed and follow, IPL/ICL/ODI'S and Test cricket in any part of the world. People have live access to happenings at the turf clubs all around the nation.
An article in BBC estimated India to be eight highest in volumes of betting in the world. Cricket betting is into billions of Rupees. All a bookmaker needs is a mobile phone and he is in business, the laws are lax enough in India to prove a deterrent to rampant existence of illegal bookmaking in every nook and corner of the nation. We cannot stop them, so the issue is why not legalize betting?
The answer is that this is simply more than a business decision, it a moral decision too. Though we have shaken away most of the socialist tags, this taboo regarding betting remains, in legalizing it a few intelligent 'fear' will drive people to gambling. Quite 'quixotically' they close eyes to millions wagering today. Many Indians advocate legalising the betting system, known as satta, to generate revenue for the government. Volume of money involved in it can make government can earn a lot from cricket betting through entertainment and other taxes if they legalise it like betting on horse-races, this was said by an advisor to the Central Board of Direct Taxes. He however forgot to add the government earnings from horse racing are limited from on course betting, while hundred times over is the turnover in horse racing outside the race course.
BBC article of 2001, link www.news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/england/1723667.stm spells out the amount involved in an India England series to be to the tune of 400 million Pounds, that's equivalent to roughly 3400 crores Indian rupees. Just Imagine the turnover in India Pakistan or India Australia games or even in The IPL.
Today if we add up, cricket betting volume in India is almost 2.2 lac crores a year, almost 45 billion USD, add to this the unnofficial race betting volume, then betting is already a 52 billion dollar Industry in India.
So perhaps to save a few from being driven to gambling the government is losing 5 t0 8 billion in taxes that could be utilized for public good like the UK National lottery does, the amounts are huge, tax collected from gambling during one year can modernize the whole Indian police and arm them with latest tools. Tax collected from betting can develop infrastructure where it is very necessary and can change the face of the nation.
However I don't perceive government to legalize betting soon, the political parties are into vote bank politics and any party that will move to legalize betting will face opposition from other parties and moral forces in the country.
Prudent legalization of betting means a time when all malls will have betting kiosks, and many panwalas will have digital equipment to make collections and payouts , and all this will make the government richer in billions of Dollars, but sadly the stigma attached to the issue makes even the wise resist tapping this wealth which would be for the general good of India.
Legal Betting will make government earn even more as illegal havala system in place for bettors settling will be done away with. There will be reduced money laundering and finally the money will not be channelized through groups that cause the nations security a live threat.
Moral Policing has never ended prostitution, various lawmakers of different nations have been known to have paid for commercial sex. No one stopped drinking during prohibition, even on dry days, people drink. Moral policing is absurd especially since money is a need of all free humans, and speculation is a behavior that is in all humans. All business have speculation embedded in them. Like any other so called social evil, gambling will never go. The Dharamraja Yudhisthar in Mahabharata was keen gambler. The gambling Industry is very ancient.
Legally registered bookmakers can help government fight illegalities that crop up in sports. Match-fixing or making a race, it will become easier to fight these evils with transparency that will arrive with legal status to bookmaking.As long as betting is conducted in legal and transparent manner it will benefit all.
However at no point of time in history, gambling could have enriched a nation so much, in fact from the tax collected the government can set out a fund for pathological gamblers and rehabilitate them. Singapore is coming up with a Casino, where if a wife reports that her husband cannot play, he will be barred. There always will be methods to deal with problems. Today the time is ripe for the government to tap in the revenue that legalization of betting can generate. As an industry it will open new jobs and a ripple effect of wealth will touch all parts of the nation.
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