5 reasons gambling in cricket should be legal in India

The Lodha Committee report has called for legalizing gambling in India and for players to disclose their assets. In wake of this it makes sense to examine the question of making gambling legal, and it is a pretty straightforward issue.From gambling away money, to property to even livestock, people have gambled and will continue to gamble for ages. Cricket is one avenue where gambling is especially lucrative. Here are five reasons why gambling on cricket ought to be legalized in India:

#1 Removal of stigma

Gambling is a prime vice

Gambling is listed under a vice in perhaps every docterine which covers the subject of vices. Legalizing it will go a small way towards removing that stigma. That isn’t to say that gambling ought to be encouraged necessarily. But removal of stigma will allow for a situation where one doesn’t have to pursue it for the thrill of breaking a stigma.

Like smoking being legal around the world but only in regulated spaces, that allows for an open discussion about the habit of smoking. We are so busy discussing the legality and attempting to regulate the illegal, that having a discourse on what’s right and wrong doesn’t really take place.

#2 Delhi court concurs that legalizing is the right move

Legalizing gambling in cricket is the correct move

Two people were prosecuted for organizing betting on the 2007 World Cup match between Australia and South Africa. While allowing an appeal by them, the court made some interesting remarks.

Additional sessions judge Dharmesh Sharma, of a Delhi trial court said "It does not need divine eyes to see that 'satta' in cricket and other games is reaching an alarming situation. The extent of money that it generated is diverted to clandestine and sinister objectives like drug trafficking and terrorist activities. It is high time that our legislature seriously considers legalising the entire system of betting online or otherwise so that enough revenues can be generated to fund various infrastructural requirements for the common man and thus check the lucrative business in organised crime.”

When you know that the people in charge of safeguarding our laws are in favour of legalizing gambling, it makes you stop and think that they may be on to something.

#3 The police are probably in the know

Cricket offers many opportunites to gamble upon

It is impossible for a large scale industry like gambling to exist and thrive without some level of involvement by the police. Not to say that they are corrupt, just that according to judge Sharma they are probably in the know.

"A little surfing on the internet would reveal that in Delhi alone there would be operating as many as 2,000-3,000 bookies at any given point of time when cricket matches or even other matches are played all over the world. This could not be done under the very nose of police without their knowledge," the judge said.

“The half-hearted and lackadaisical approach of the police in nabbing the perpetrators of this organised crime on satta business leaves an irresistible impression that police is not only ill-equipped to deal with such cases but probably they have higher stake in continuance of the same under their patronage.”

Legalizing betting will go a long way towards helping our law enforcement officials to control the possible problems arising from gambling.

#4 Monetary sense

Legalizing will add to the tax money

A report cites that more than Rs. 20,000 crores (approximately US$4.27 billion) was pumped in through illegal betting syndicates during the 2009 IPL season. That is black money flowing through the economy’s under belly. Money which if regulated can be used in a constructive manner. Right now all manners of pockets are being filled by this black money, imagine if it could actually be used towards the growth and development of the country.

Imagine that money being taxed and the level of respite it can offer the nation.

#5 Gambling is not going away

Gambling is here to stay

Gambling has been around ever since the Pandavas threw dice, perhaps longer. Its status as legal/illegal will neither curtail nor extinguish it. What making it legal will do is help us to regulate it. Gambling is an immensely lucrative industry, one which is running rampant in India. The half hearted efforts of making it illegal have mostly fallen flat.

Cricket is perhaps the best suited sport to gamble around, with intervals in action and multiple variables interacting with each other. The sport is an addiction and so is gambling. An industry catering to addiction has unlimited demand. This demand is resulting in gambling having a strong foothold in the community, one which isn't being eradicated anytime soon. Perhaps we ought to embrace it.