Poll-eve crackdown on cash forces IPL betting online
Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, April 27
Following raids on persons moving around with more than Rs 50,000 in cash, Dubai-based betting syndicates offering wagers on the ongoing IPL cricket series have taken the rackets almost entirely online allowing for cashless transactions, according to police.
According to officers of the Mumbai Crime Branch who stumbled onto the new methods of betting, gamblers are sent a link to download an app on to their mobile phones that allows them to log in and place bets on various outcomes during IPL matches. One of the biggest such underground websites allowing betting on IPL matches is playnwin247, which can be accessed via Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) in case it is blocked by the Internet Service Provider.
”Hawala operators in major cities have been appointed as agents by the owners of these websites. Bettors deposit a minimum of Rs 1 crore with these agents and are given points or tokens for placing bets,” explains a police official from the Kandivli police station in suburban Mumbai where a betting racket was busted earlier this month.
He added that most of the punters are high networth individuals including diamond merchants and film producers who have deposited crores of rupees well before the election schedule was announced.
”The funds collected from the punters have already been sent abroad via the hawala route and winners have been promised payments after the end of polling in their cities,” the officer added.
Police officials said they have arrested three people who were collecting cash from some punters. These bookies were caught with a crore of rupees that was delivered to them minutes before a police raid on the flat in Kandivli they were operating from. However, officials said, the three Abdul Kadri, 28, Milind Soni, 29, Manoj Lotalikar, 25, were merely couriers whose job was to pass on the money to the rest of the gang.
According to investigators, bookies and the punters use messenger applications like WhatsApp and Telegram, which have high-levels of encryption that make it difficult for chats to be hacked into.
“Only by infiltrating into a group can a network be busted. But the group itself consists of ten to 20 persons and there could be hundreds if not thousands of such groups,” the police official said.
With much of the betting business moving online just about half-a-dozen betting rackets have been busted in Mumbai during the IPL season, according to officials.
