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.
