City witnesses betting high, thanks to IPL

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Express news service

Posted online: Friday , April 25, 2008 at 01:09:01
Updated: Friday , April 25, 2008 at 01:09:01

kolkata, April 24 With the beginning of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and its growing popularity, the number of illegal betting rackets in the city Kolkata has gone up. Late on Wednesday night, police arrested seven more people for running an illegal betting racket.

This follows the April 22 busting of an inter-state betting racket in which five persons were arrested. Police had also recovered Rs 1.6 lakh in cash, a computer, mobile phones, score-sheets, and a landline phone for teleconferencing purpose.

The police, however, ruled out any connection between the two arrests and said that both rackets were involved in betting during matches.

The Wednesday's arrests were made after police, acting on a tip-off, raided a house on Iqbalpur Road and arrested six persons ---Abdul Karim, Afzal Hussain, Abdul Kalim, Mohammad Jamal, Riazuddin and Sheikh Faizal. A TV, five cellphones and documents related to betting were recovered from them.

The detective department of Kolkata police also arrested one Manoj Mau (37) from Rabindra Sarani in connection with a betting racket.

The police came to know about Mau's involvement in the betting racket during the interrogation of the five persons arrested on April 22.

Beside, these two incidents, the state CID had also raided a building in Baguiati, North 24-Parganas on March 31 and had arrested three persons, including an alleged cricket bookie for running an online betting racket. Four laptops, six mobile phones and related documents were recovered from them. Senior CID officers said the trio had been operating the betting network online with the help of hawala.

One doesn't need phenomenal infrastructure to be a cricket bookie. All one needs is a TV to watch the match, mobiles to receive the bets, paper to keep records, and a net connection.

"From what we have understood, the odds for each match are based on the odds projected by UK-based betting websites where betting on cricket is legal. These odds then percolate into the Indian bookmakers' calculations as per the betting atmosphere. For instance, Mumbai bookies may offer different odds compared to Kolkata bookies," DC (DD) Jawed Shamim said.

Senior officers investigating the cases said Kolkata ranks low among the metros as far as the volume of money involved in the betting is concerned. "Delhi and Mumbai have much higher turnover. It's hard to say at the moment if bookies in Kolkata are working in tandem with their counterparts in other metros," they said.

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