{"id":22350,"date":"2021-09-06T12:44:56","date_gmt":"2021-09-06T15:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=22350"},"modified":"2026-04-23T15:58:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T18:58:35","slug":"india-115-arrested-for-illegal-gambling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/india-115-arrested-for-illegal-gambling","title":{"rendered":"India: 115 arrested for illegal gambling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Police in Kochi, Kerala, have arrested 115 people for alleged involvement in illegal gambling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

India.- Authorities have\u00a0arrested 115 people<\/strong>\u00a0during a series of raids related to alleged\u00a0illegal gambling activities<\/strong> in Kochi, Kerala.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite\u00a0police warnings and government measures against public gatherings<\/strong>\u00a0due to Covid-19, officers had detected 270 gambling centres in the area. In a series of raids over three days, officers seized cash worth over Rs 1.25 lakh<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The police said: “Fights at these gambling centres are regular, causing a nuisance to local residents. We urge the public to inform the police of any such illegal activities occurring in their neighbourhood.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police believe that\u00a0over 200 gambling centres are in operation in the area <\/strong>and that people in the surrounding areas frequent the centres, further exacerbating Covid-19 contagion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An officer said: \u201cWe have come to know that these gambling centres mushroomed after the lockdown.\u00a0These games are mostly hosted in interior areas which are not easily accessible<\/strong>\u00a0to the police.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The persons running these centres provide all facilities, including food and liquor. In some cases, card game gambling is held at rented houses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delhi police officer in illegal cricket betting operation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

New Delhi\u2019s police<\/a> force has dismissed an officer <\/strong>for being involved in an organised illegal cricket betting operation<\/strong>. Amit Kumar<\/strong> was also accused of being associated with criminals and rioters and of organising illegal gambling events.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to The Indian Express, Kumar was discovered during a fight between two men who were involved in betting operations<\/strong>. One of them was Amit Raghav who was part of a betting racket and was close to Amit Kumar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Officers discovered that both Raghav and Kumar carried out illegal gambling rackets and collected money from gamblers<\/strong>. Police also suspect Kumar was involved with bar owners who were breaching Covid-19 countermeasures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An officer stated: \u201cWe found that Kumar was actively in touch with all the bar owners and managers in the area. During questioning, he admitted he called them regularly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cricket remains India\u2019s most popular sport<\/strong>. There is a huge underground cricket betting market said to be worth between US$45bn and US$150bn a year. Around 80 per cent of illegal sports betting in India is on Cricket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Shabir Hussein Shekhadam Khandwawala<\/strong>, the head of the Anti-Corruption Unit of the Board of Control for Cricket in India <\/strong>(BCCI), said that he is firmly against the possibility of <\/strong>legalising sports betting<\/a> <\/strong>in India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike his predecessor<\/strong>, who had stated that legalising betting would be the most effective <\/strong>means of preventing corruption within the game, Khandwawala believes legal sports<\/strong> betting would encourage match-fixing<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said: \u201cWe can make the rules more strict<\/strong>. We will work on that. It is a matter of great prestige that cricket is largely free of corruption. Credit should go to the BCCI for that.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Police in Kochi, Kerala, have arrested 115 people for alleged involvement in illegal gambling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":22357,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Indian authorities have intensified enforcement against illegal gambling, with significant arrests in Kochi, Kerala, and the dismissal of a Delhi police officer involved in an illicit cricket betting operation. These actions underscore the pervasive nature and substantial economic scale of India's unregulated betting market, estimated between US$45bn and US$150bn annually, reigniting the contentious debate on sports betting legalization, which the BCCI's Anti-Corruption Unit head firmly opposes due to integrity concerns.","focusai_entities":"Amit Kumar, Amit Raghav, Shabir Hussein Shekhadam Khandwawala, Board of Control for Cricket in India","focusai_location":"India, Kochi, Kerala, New Delhi","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.85), regulator (0.95), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.8), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.75), journalist_researcher (0.98)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"India Market Regulation","query":"What specific policy shifts or regulatory frameworks would be required to transition India's substantial illegal betting market into a regulated, taxable industry, and what are the primary political and social impediments?"},{"label":"Enforcement Efficacy","query":"How do current enforcement strategies against illegal gambling in India compare in efficacy to potential benefits of a regulated market in terms of consumer protection, tax revenue, and crime reduction?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[439,16333],"tags":[23911],"class_list":["post-22350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-gambling-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22350"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22364,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22350\/revisions\/22364"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}