Legalizing Sports Betting in India

The area of betting is very common in the country like India where the people tend to be escaping from the clutches of the tax laws. When Demonetization was announced public found the ways of laundering their black money. So if betting activity is legalized, it will give boost to the spur of black money and marketing and involve huge loss of money as well as assets. It increases the chances of greed and as a result disaster and economic burden on country.

Yes, legalizing it can lead to increase in the revenue for the country but when it is said that being Gujarat the DRY state, Liquor is still sold illegally and police is still in bribing and accepting black money. So even if the government make efforts, people will find the way out of it.

Sports- An activity which has been in India since ages and it has several human feelings attached to it. When it comes to the term “sports” it is regarded to the passion of the sports player. When it comes to passion it depicts the honesty, integrity and talent of sports player. Now a days the term BETTING has been an epidemic all over India. Widespread of this leads to many problems and economic slowdown or advantage to many classes of society. Many people all over country are engaged in this profession and making money out of it. But do it benefits country? Or making the situation worse?

Sports betting

There is an 1867 British law called the Public Gambling Act which had stated, "nothing in this Act shall apply to games of mere skill wherever played" and it is from there that amendments and variations around the law operate. In 1998, the Central Lotteries (Regulation) Act allowed state governments to conduct lotteries, to a maximum of one draw a week and the states then made their own laws around their specific lotteries.

Countries supporting Sports Betting

Countries like Argentina, Australia, Ghana, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, United Kingdom, UAE, Singapore etc have legalized sports betting in many games. In the 2014 Gambling Outlook Report released by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the combined size of the betting market in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa is estimated to be worth nearly $37 billion by 2018.

Many countries made a huge amount of revenue through legalizing sports betting which added to the GDP of the country. After the establishment of Olympics and other International Games, the betting is considered as an economic activity in many developed as well as developing countries. The government levy taxes on the money made during betting activities which adds to the corpus of government treasury and it can be used for the development of their countries.

But many countries such as China, Hong Kong, Japan etc. where betting and gambling are legal in some extent but majorly high penalty is imposed on betting for many games and it is strictly prohibited. There are many ethical standards attached to this activity. It has several advantages and several disadvantages.

Advantages

On June 25, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry or FICCI organised a seminar "Interactive Session on Regulating Sports Betting in India: Challenges and Opportunities".

1) Tax Benefits: The government can earn handsome amount of tax imposed on betting activities and fill its corpus. The money then collected can be subject to the authenticity and considering legal aspects.

2) Employment generation: Thus more people will earn and in the country like India where many people are illegally engaged in this profession can consider this as legal profession and pay taxes levied.

3) High revenue: Betting generates high amount of revenue for the economy. States like GOA generates high amount of revenue for the state which eventually becomes the part of GDP of the nation. As per reports, The size of the gambling industry is estimated to be Rs 3 trillion.

4) Reducing Match Fixing: As the authorities will regulate the betting activities, the chances of match fixing which is a problem in India will be gradually reduces and leads to transparency in sports activities.

Disadvantages

1) Addiction: As betting is an addictive activity, people can go beyond their capacity and can bet. This leads to many physical as well as mental problems.

2) Advantage to bookies: Betting is a gambling activity. Every gambling leads to the favor of the bookie and the game will work as per instructions of bookie many times and he will confiscate all the money involved.

3) Greed: “Losing makes you gamble more.” The greed for playing increases and chances of losing are also high because many people are involves in betting.

4) Loss of personal assets: Many people for the sake of luck gamble and with the greed of making money sell their assets and opt for betting which ultimately make them hopeless and homeless.

5) Black Money: Money involved in sports betting is illegal and nonaccountable. The income from it doesnot get informed to Income tax authorities.

6) Government loss: The money from betting is not subject to tax. So all the income is hidden and government cannot levy taxes on it and suffers loss because of it.

Discussions in India

Various people ariund the country are trying to reach to government and ask for the legalization of sports betting.