In a high-octane debate where the moderator, Sanjiv Paul, chairman of the FICCI Sports Committee, had to intervene a number of times on Tuesday, betting industry insiders George Orbone, MD of IndiaBet.com and Albert Climent, an old hand in the Asian and European betting circles, teamed up with advocate Vidushpath Singhania - who helped draft the National Sports Development Bill - in pointing out to the "advantages" of legalizing betting.
Lending the strongest pitch for legalizing, Climent said that licensed owners are usually the first ones who do not want any match to get fixed. "At one go, you will have the operators on your side. They will help the security agencies as their own profits will be reduced if external illegal forces control the game," he said. He added that almost all modern sports governing bodies were working in tandem with bookmakers in Europe and America. "There have been instances when tipped by the bookmakers, FIFA officials have entered dressing rooms and warned players that they were being monitored. This helped to nip the potential fixers in the bud," he said.
Oborne questioned the need for an emerging nation like India to continue resting its case on the 19th century British law when the Internet was never heard of. He emphasized that laws needed to be rebuilt and rewritten from India's point of view.
FICCI, which pegged the total betting market in India at a mind-boggling Rs 300,000 crore, said that 74 per cent of those surveyed by them in a recent survey said they believed that legalizing sports betting will help curb match fixing. 83 per cent of respondents in FICCI survey said regulating sports betting with proper laws is better than banning it. FICCI said that the big advantage of regulating sports betting is going to be the accountability for the large amounts of money transferred through illegal channels and reduction in cases of fixing, money laundering and other crimes.
The lone voice of dissent came from special commissioner of Delhi police (special cell) S N Srivastava who said that the country might still be not ready for betting. Stressing on the social taboo on gambling, he pointed out that unless a judgment from Supreme Court held otherwise or a stronger law is brought into being, police will continue treating betting as illegal according to the Gambling Act, 1955 even if "cricket involves skill." "We must not forget that betting is not approved by our society and we also lack the requisite education and awareness in this regard," he said.
Srivastava agreed that India is in need of stringent laws in sports but felt that the country was not yet ready to accept regulation in betting. He suggested that legalizing of betting could be considered 10-15 years later.
Delhi police, meanwhile, said that they will not drop MCOCA charges in their IPL spot-fixing chargesheet involving some cricketers but said they will move a higher court with their plea. Some panelists compared the role of the FIFA with the BCCI saying that while the former was helping security agencies curb illegal betting, BCCI has so far done little to punish the cricketers.
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