Staff Reporter
Guwahati: India's most-watched cricket competition, the Indian Premier League (IPL), began on March 31 this year, and so did betting in Assam, with Guwahati as the epicentre of betting rackets. Such rackets are also flourishing in other places in the state, and several arrests of betting kingpins were made by the police.
In a raid conducted by Paltan Bazar police at Birubari in Guwahati last night, one Irfan Baig was arrested for running an IPL (Indian Premier League) betting racket. During a search at his residence, cash amounting to Rs 27,000 was seized by the police team.
A similar story unfolded in Dibrugarh, as police arrested two individuals, Anil Kabri and Deepak Sahu, for their involvement in an IPL betting racket. The duo was apprehended from the Seujpur area under the Gabrupathar police outpost.
In a crackdown on illegal betting activities, the Titabar police arrested four individuals involved in an IPL gambling racket recently, including the alleged kingpin Sanjeev Kalwar. Acting on specific inputs, a large police team led by Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Tarun Goel raided Kalwar's residence in Titabar Chariali, unearthing a widespread betting operation linked to IPL matches.
In another major crackdown on illegal IPL gambling, Rowta police arrested two individuals, Imran Hussain and Tapan Paul, from the Rowta area of Udalguri district.
The modus operandi is the circulation of the link to a specific App through WhatsApp. According to sources, the gamblers download the specific App onto their mobile handsets and link that App with their Google accounts, where money is transferred from their respective bank accounts.
The kingpins involved in the betting rackets have a network of agents or bookies who circulate the App among those who gamble. The mafia collects the money online from the agents in the network.
The betting, according to sources, starts before the start of the match. There are bets on each ball, each batsman, each bowler, and each run as to who will win and whatnot. The rate of betting fluctuates. When the rate goes up, Rs 100 can fetch up to Rs 10,000. When the match becomes exciting or thrilling, with one or two runs required in the last ball, the rate of betting return goes up sharply. In such situations, Rs 100 may fetch Rs 1 lakh.
All such transactions are conducted online, and there is no room for any cash transactions. Such betting goes on everywhere in Guwahati and other places in Assam.
Illegal betting platforms operate outside the ambit of Indian laws and often evade regulated financial ecosystems, facilitating money laundering through alternative channels. These platforms also lack any data protection safeguards, exposing users to rampant data theft, financial fraud, and identity breaches, according to police sources.
For sports enthusiasts, skill-based real-money gaming formats like fantasy sports offer a responsible and regulated way to engage with the games they love, especially during major sporting events like the ongoing IPL. But a parallel underground ecosystem of illegal betting platforms, exploiting regulatory loopholes and digital anonymity, has overshadowed not just the country's online gaming industry but also its most popular sport.
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