There is no denying that cricket plays an important role in the lives of most Indians. This game has become one of the symbols of the country both on the domestic and international levels.
Recent statistics show, that apart from watching cricket matches Indians also love to wager on the sport. These activities leave room for controversy since cricket betting is sort of a grey area in India.
Is betting on cricket legal in India?
The answer to this question is not straightforward. The reason for this is the Indian regulations from 1867, more precisely the Public Gaming Act. The act states that gambling on Indian territory is illegal.
But since the act was written long before the invention of the Internet, it doesn’t prevent Indian citizens to gamble online. And cricket punters are taking advantage of this loophole.
According to some reports, between 140 and 370 million Indian bettors wager online each year. And 8 out of every 10 bets placed are on cricket matches. These numbers get even higher when the IPL season starts during which players use ipl betting app download option to download betting apps to their phones and play on the go.
Rise of cricket betting in India
At the moment, there are two main ways to place a bet on a cricket match in India. The first one is by using online bookies and the second one is illegally in illegal gambling houses.
Online betting on cricket
Thanks to the development of the internet and other technology infrastructure, more and more Indians have access to the Internet and smartphones. For those who have the privilege to use these services, online betting is seamless. It is convenient, fast, and secure. For these reasons each year, there is an increase in the number of online cricket bets.
Bettors who have experienced the benefits of gambling online rarely go back to illegal gambling in their local gambling houses.
Back-alley betting on cricket
As we already mentioned, betting on cricket is illegal in India, which means that betting houses are not permitted to take bets on cricket matches. This led to the development of illegal bookies who take these kinds of bets.
At the moment, by some estimates, the illegal cricket betting market in India is around three times bigger than the online cricket betting market. One of the reasons for this is the lack of access to smartphones and the Internet for many Indians across the country.
The truth is that illegal cricket betting brings many dangers to bettors. One of the main ones is not getting paid even when their bet wins. The other is winning a large sum f money and then getting robbed because there everybody knows their identity.
Conclusion
Both the online and the illegal betting industry in India are thriving thanks to the lack of regulation and the lack of implementation of the ones that do exist. A change in regulations would allow the Indian government to legalize betting on cricket and exterminate many of the illegal activities surrounding cricket gambling.
