Why in news?
Ministry of Sports is undertaking consultations to legalise online sports betting in India.
What is Sport betting?
- A sport betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcome.
- The sports department is preparing an MoU with the UK which exhibits one of the successful models of legalised gambling.
How it is done in India?
- The illegal betting market in India is worth around 10 lakh crore.
- Most of it is done via local bookmakers and unregulated offshore websites.
- Sports ministry is now trying to absorb this revenue by legalising online betting.
What is the rationale behind the move?
- At present, betting is legal only on horse racing, and it is taxed.
- Legalising other online sports betting can address the issue of poor funding for sports at central and state level.
- Possibility of diverting a part of the revenue generated from betting towards the ministry’s programmes.
- The issue of legalising betting gathered momentum when former Chief Justice of India R M Lodha recommended it in his report to the Supreme Court last year, saying that betting should be legalised in cricket
What are the challenges?
- Betting is seen as a sensitive socio-political issue especially after the recent match-fixing and spot-fixing controversies in Cricket.
- The challenge lies in balancing the economic benefits and ethical concerns with betting.
Source: The Indian Express
