India: 15 arrested for alleged illegal gambling

Police in Mancheswar made the arrests in the Pandra area.

India.- Police in Mancheswar, Odisha, have arrested 15 people in the Pandra area of Bhubaneswar in connection with illegal gambling. Officers also seized Rs 4.4 lakh, a car and bikes.

Elsewhere in India, three people were arrested this week in Mangaluru, Karnataka, after police received a tipoff about alleged matka gambling taking place on the ground floor of a building.

Matka is a form of gambling that originated in India and is popular in some other parts of South Asia. It was originally a type of lottery game that involved placing bets on the opening and closing rates of cotton transmitted to the Bombay Cotton Exchange from the New York Cotton Exchange.