New Delhi: Frauds and malpractices in sports have become the order of the day and have affected the credibility of sports in India. It has become increasingly difficult to punish the guilty because of lack of evidence, politicization and geographical spread of the problem. The IPL 2013 spot fixing scandal is a grim reminder that now is the time to debate, revisit the legislation and to explore the regulation for sports betting when time and again efforts to curb fixing in sports have gone down the drain. There is no denial of the fact that there is a need for further information at this point to form a consensus.
A FICCI Knowledge Paper on ‘Regulating Sports Betting in India – II’ notes that there is little doubt that betting or gambling on sport exists in India, as it does in other parts of the world, despite it being wholly illegal in the Indian context, apart from betting on horses in certain states which has been ruled as a skill based activity by Supreme Court of India.
If there were ever a difficult and complex question, it is to decide what the current social acceptance of gambling may be within Indian society. Inevitably, it is a very complex picture, and any conclusion is likely to be coloured to some extent by the way in which the questions are posed, and the point of view of the person considering the results. All that may be said for certain is that while there is a large number of people who do not wish to gamble and who frown on such activity, there is equally a very large number of people in India who do gamble in one way or another (or who have no strong view in either direction).
A survey conducted by FICCI found that 83% of respondents believe that regulating sports betting with proper laws was better than banning it. Seventy four per cent (74%) feel legalizing sports betting will curb match fixing and 68% believe betting in sport could be controlled.
In India, sports betting is deemed to be illegal and lottery is a regulated business under state control, whereas, in countries like the UK the funds from sports betting is used for funding of elite sports, training and exposure of athletes. Besides, funds from lottery have played important role in funding sports development in China, UK, South Africa, etc. Now the question is whether sports betting can also be regulated in India and funds from sports betting and lottery could also support development and funding of sports like many other countries.
The second in series knowledge paper on Regulating Sports Betting in India is an attempt to put things in the perspective and to decide whether to effectively regulate sports betting (and also prevent sports fraud) or criminalize it.
