G3-247 Report INDIA
“Criminal law should be invoked only where a guilty intent is proved and players should not be liable of match fixing and doping on mere presumption. At the same time legalising betting would be a step in the right direction as this will ensure transparency and lead to removal of corruption from sports, which is the need of the hour.” KTS Tulsi, Senior Advocate of Supreme Court of India.
poker, bingo and sports which will take money from India. Monkeybookers list 1,475 such sites whilst Visa and Mastercard report 1,898 and 1,813 respectively. Approximately 40 per cent of internet users in India have admitted to visiting gambling sites and betting.
Raj Patel of blog site
Sportsbetting.net.in said: “Moneybookers for example is famous in India and used by many website programmers, consultants and free- lance writers to take payment from their clients. Indian banks deal with them regularly for transactions that have nothing to do with gambling.
“While your bank might ask you for a purpose code when doing large deposits or withdrawals ultimately there isn’t too much concern they will have an issue with these transactions. This is because the name of the gambling site never appears.”
The IPL 2013 spot fixing scandal brought the whole sports betting issue back to the surface again and there are calls to re-evaluate the current legislation and legalise sports betting in a bid to curb fixings on sports.
bling activities by holding the ISP responsible for block- ing offshore betting sites.
However despite this there is extensive online illegal gambling throughout the country as it did not prohibit Indian residents from accessing online betting operators internationally which either accept Rupees or offer e- wallet deposit options. The majority of sports bettors use Moneybookers or Neteller to deposit to online bookies.
The only site which apparently accepts Rupee deposits directly is
Bet265.com. This site enables players to reg- ister with their home address, deposit, and wager and withdraw in Indian Rupees.
Otherwise Indians can deposit money via Skrill (Moneybookers) or Neteller – e-wallets set up in Rupees linked to player’s home bank accounts or credit or debit card. EntroPay is another system similar to e- wallet but funds are loaded to the player’s account via virtual debit card number. This means players can deposit and withdraw anonymously.
NETeller say there are 1,565 websites for casinos games,
The Indian Premier League, India’s most successful and profitable professional sports league came under fire in May 2013 when three Indian cricketers from the Rajasthan Royals were said to have been involved in spot fixing during certain league cricket matches. It blew up when the owner of the Chennai Super Kings team, Gurunath Meiyappan, was also interrogated regarding his role.
What emerged was that there were strict limitations within the existing legal framework to charge or prose- cute alleged sporting fraud offenders in India. This is party due to the archaic laws and the absence of any law governing fraud in the field of play.
At a Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) conference late last year it was argued that the government could earn substantial revenues from taxing such activities, it would help remove illegal gambling, it could support some grass root sports pro- grammes from revenue and help prevent criminal activ- ity funded by illegal betting.
A tax rate of 20 per cent has been suggested. At the moment the betting market in India is said to be worth US$600m. There have been extensive discussions between the Law Ministry and Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports about the drafting of a modern law on sports. The Prevention of Sporting Fraud Bill 2013 (anti-fixing
bill) is a step in the right direction and will help combat fraud in domestic and international sporting events.
This was drafted last year by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and has been based around other laws in the EU and the bill has a provision of monetary fines of Rs1m up to Rs5m which is dependent on the economic benefit the guilty party has derived from sporting fraud.
Mr KTS Tulsi, Senior Advocate of Supreme Court of India said: “After the IPL fiasco there is a big hue and cry regarding the amendments in the sports law and inclu- sion of issues such as criminalisation of sports, invoking criminal law for match fixing and betting and strength- ening of anti-doping laws, but in an effort to clean up sports, sportsmen should not be made a scapegoat.
“Criminal law should be invoked only where a guilty intent is proved and players should not be liable of match fixing and doping on mere presumption. At the same time legalising betting would be a step in the right direction as this will ensure transparency and lead to removal of corruption from sports, which is the need of the hour.”
For a bill to be passed by Indian Parliament it needs to be introduced before both the
houses. After it is passed here it is signed into effect by the President of India. It has yet to go through the first two houses.
Meanwhile in July 2013 the National Sports Development Bill 2013 was drafted in a bid to bring reforms in regarding the management and governance of sports. But since sports is a state subject, both the anti fixing bill and the sports bill will need to be introduced before the parliament and will require the support of the states as well as the lawmakers. It was open to public consultation under December 2013.
For a bill to be passed by Indian Parliament it needs to be introduced before both the houses (the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha). After it is passed here it is signed into effect by the President of India. It has yet to go through the first two houses.
However many say the question is not whether sports betting in India should be regulated but more when it will be regulated? It has taken seven months for the draft bill to be introduced after the IPL scandal and it has not yet been finalised so it could take some time yet.
The central elections in India are scheduled for April 2014 which could mean the anti fixing bill may be shelved until the monsoon session of parliament bring- ing further delays.
In October last year the FICCI launched a paper, Regulating Sports Betting in India, during a conference on the issue which followed on from a previous paper published in June 2012.
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