Abstract
This research paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the legal landscape surrounding sports betting in India, with a particular focus on its historical roots, legal frameworks, and the challenges posed by match-fixing and unregulated gambling. Sports betting in India has evolved from ancient practices, as seen in the Ramayana and Mahabharata, to a rapidly expanding modern industry enabled by technological advancement and growing sports popularity. However, the legal stance on betting remains fragmented, with differing regulations across Indian state. The paper delves into the dichotomy, exploring how this distinction influenced the legality of various betting activities. It discusses the outdated yet still relevant public gambling act of 1867 and highlights how states like Sikkim and goa have legalized specific forms of gambling, while others continue to enforce prohibitions.
The paper also explores the broader implications of sports betting, including its link to organized crime and match-fixing, which compromise the integrity of sports. Comparative analyses with international jurisdiction such as the United States, Europe, and the Middle East reveal how legal reforms, and regulatory frameworks have successfully integrated sports betting into mainstream economic systems. These international models demonstrate the potential benefits of legalization, including significant revenue generation, job creation, and crime reduction.
In conclusion, the paper argues for a more unified and progressive legal approach to sports betting in India. Legalization, accompanied by stringent regulations and transparency measures, could mitigate the adverse effects of illegal betting and match-fixing, foster integrity in sports, and contribute to economic developments. This study suggests that a well-regulated betting market, informed by global best practices and adapted to India’s unique socio-legal context, offers a promising path forward.
INTRODUCTION
Sports betting is predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcomes. It requires betting money on several possible outcomes in sports events, like which team will win the toss, and which team will win a match, on the final score, or any particular events within the games, like which player will hit the first boundary, or which player will score first. Bettors can place bets with friends, through bookmakers, or illegally through privately run enterprises known as bookies. Sports betting in many countries has evolved from simple bets between friends to a huge global industry. All these changes happen due to modern technology, new laws, and gambling being a normal activity. Sports betting can be played online and offline. With the help of technology and the increasing popularity of sports like cricket, football, kabaddi, etc., betting on sports has rapidly increased in India.
In 2017 Supreme Court decided to think about the legalization of gambling and betting, which are prohibited and punishable as per Indian laws. The reason behind this decision is that India loses money due to unregulated betting. It has been estimated that if betting were legal in India, then it would be helpful to India and it would generate revenue of around 12000 crores. If the government legalized betting in India, then corrupt activities like match-fixing and harmful betting would stop in India, and it would also provide credibility because nowadays the government would have more power and authority over sports.
Match-fixing and sports betting are interconnected for reasons like financial gain, easy targets, crime involvement, integrity of sports, global effort, involvement, and technology. People fix the matches to earn money from the betting, and they know what will happen in the ongoing match, which player will perform well. They know the result of the match and place money to win a big amount of money. Some kinds of bets, like in small sports events, are very easy to fix for the outcomes. Some organized crime groups frequently fix the match and place bets to earn money. Match fixing and sports betting damaged the trust in sports. Organizations and countries are working together to stop the match-fixing. In fixing the match fixers can’t earn so much money because if they want to fix the match, they have to give money to players for not performing in a match, but if they want to earn a high amount of money, then they have to place bets on the fixed match. Match fixing is a situation where a player or players do not perform well in a match for personal benefit or money. Players perform in such a way that the selected result is achieved, which is totally against the ethics and sports spirit. Also, players try to lose the match, make opponents win, and undermine the trust of fans. Players also manipulate the results of games for financial gain. In match-fixing, there is spot fixing, match outcome fixing, point shaving, over-fixing, etc. Spot-fixing is to manipulate specific movements in-game, and it is very difficult to detect. An example of spot-fixing is a bowler deliberately bowling a no-ball or wide ball in cricket, and similarly, in football, players receive red or yellow cards with the intention. In match outcome fixing, the final result of the game is predetermined, and players play accordingly. In this type of fixing, more than one player or even a whole team is involved in fixing. This type of fixing has a very low chance of fixing the match. In point-shaving, players manipulate the score margin in a match. This can be done in basketball, rugby, and football. For example, a player intentionally misses the shots to keep a score within a particular range. In over-fixing player gives several runs, which is predetermined. The bowler intentionally gave more runs in an over.