A whopping Rs 6 lakh crore to Rs 7 lakh crore worth of bets is estimated to have been placed on the just concluded mega poll
Manish Pachouly
Mumbai: There may be a debate on the condition of the Indian economy, however, when you are told that the betting on the just concluded Lok Sabha elections was equal to the GDP of the Central American country Panama, it will send many into a frenzy.
According to sources in the betting circle, the amount of bets placed on the elections is estimated to be between Rs 6 lakh crore to Rs 7 lakh crore. This is way more than the amount of Rs 2.5 lakh crore expected two months before the elections began. Sources said that the betting stopped as the elections concluded and the telecast of exit polls began.
Like all the exit polls, the bookies predict the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government for a third consecutive term. BJP, as per the last prevailing rates, is expected to get 304 to 308 seats. The NDA overall is expected to get anywhere around 350 seats. On the other hand, the bookies expect Congress to win 60 to 62 seats. The bookies have not predicted the total number of seats for the I.N.D.I.A bloc.
“The results are more likely to reflect the 2019 figures for the NDA,” said a source affiliated with the betting industry.
Sources said that the entire betting was conducted online this time with bookies cloning some websites that operate legally abroad. In India, betting is illegal except on horse racing. Most websites abroad do not accept bets if placed using India-based servers.
According to sources among bookies, there are around 300 cloned websites where bets were accepted. These are the websites owned by big bookies in the country who give their further control to other smaller ones. “It works like a frenchise store, and every cloned website follows the same rate,” a bookie said requesting anonymity.
The entire clandestine online business works systematically. The bookies give ‘buttons’ to the punters who want to place bets. The button is the link to access the website. Further, the bookies give login and password to their respective punters to allow them to place bets.
While no deposits were taken from the existing customers, bookies ensured that the new punters made advance deposits equivalent to the amount they wanted to place on bets. “Once the deposit got exhausted, the new punter was required to make further deposits to continue betting,” the bookie said. All the despoits were online, made to the sites on which the punters placed bets. The deposits, sources said, ranged from Rs 500 to Rs 100 crore for new punters,
Sources added that bets were placed not only by the common men, but many associated with politics have also put a huge amount on the predictions. The fate of the punters would be decided once the results are declared.
Bookies said that the settlement, a term called for the exchange of money, would be done after the Election Commission officially declares the result.
What is most disturbing in the entire illegal business is that some minor age people too managed to get ‘buttons’ and place bets on the election result predictions, “It was not difficult for the youths to get access to these websites and place bets because they were already addicted to the prevalent online gaming and sports apps, that allowed monetary transactions,” another bookie said. While some of these gaming apps operate legally in the country, the addiction has diverted youngsters to place illegal online bets.
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