Perhaps the greatest joy of sport is the possibility of unpredictable outcomes and participants having an equal shot at victory or defeat.
Match-fixing removes this unpredictability and, instead, introduces predetermined results into the equation. What follows is a disillusioned fan who slowly loses their faith in the sport and the genuineness of all contests.
The Law Commission of India recommended in 2018 that gambling and betting on sports, including cricket, be allowed as regulated activities taxable under the direct and indirect tax regimes and used as a source for attracting foreign direct investment.
Legalising betting could, in fact, be the answer to all of Indian cricket’s rampant match-fixing problems.
Betting Rampant in India
The BCCI’s most valuable sporting property, the IPL, was caught in the crossfire of this match-fixing saga and the matter reached the Supreme Court of India in 2015. The punishments meted out by the Supreme Court-appointed Justice Lodha Commission to the Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, as well as, team officials Gurunath Meiyappan and Raj Kundra raised serious questions about the health of sports integrity in India.
It is scant consolation that this malaise is neither restricted to India nor is it peculiar to a single sport. It spreads across continents and vexes various sports such as Cricket, Football (Soccer),Tennis, Rugby and Badminton to name a few. It is not limited to rigging the final result of the game and it extends to several parts of the game.
Legalising Betting, Best Way to Regulate Match-Fixing
The Condon Commission suggested in its report to the ICC, that legalisation of sports betting and a lawful structure of betting represents a greater chance to regulate match-fixing in Cricket.
However, the current status quo in India – a hub of illegal betting in cricket with its laws banning gambling – is not conducive to effective regulation. Illegal betting remains very difficult to track down and poses considerable evidential and investigatory challenges due to its secretive nature.
Therefore, complete prohibition on betting does not serve the purpose of either limiting or eliminating match-fixing. On the contrary, effective regulatory mechanisms allow for revenue generation through legalised sports betting that must be complemented by stringent punishments for unscrupulous elements within sport, all of which are central in the fight to succeed against match-fixing.
To effectively address match fixing in cricket, it is necessary that India enacts legislation to reflect the changes that would help in cracking down on illegal bookies.
What Must Be Done?
It is therefore absolutely imperative to amend the current criminal legislations on an urgent basis so that persons indulging in match-fixing and spot-fixing stand trial under laws that are not toothless. While the introduction of new legislations is a welcome step, the Indian Government should additionally also introduce amendments to the Public Gaming Act whereby a distinction is drawn between permissible and impermissible gambling actions.
Issuance of licenses and introduction of regulations making it mandatory for bookmakers to report suspicious betting patterns can ensure that the instances of match fixing are easily identified and investigated.
Learn from FIFA and UEFA
This would be in sync with measures undertaken by the UEFA and FIFA as they have tied up with major online gambling companies such as Betfair with a view to sharing information about games witnessing suspicious betting activities. Suchan arrangement ensures a robust early warning system is in place and it also helps to identify individuals and groups seen to potentially indulge in match-fixing. Additionally, sanctions can be introduced that would make it incumbent for those benefiting from match-fixing to pay in excess of the financial benefit that they may derive (i.e. a penalty)as it would deter people from indulging in match-fixing.
(The author is a Counsel at the Supreme Court of India and a Visiting Faculty for Sports Law at Columbia University, New York and Instituto Superiorde Derecho y Economia (ISDE), Madrid.)
(This article is being republished from The Quint’s archives to mark The Law Commission of India’s recommendation of legalising betting in sports. This piece was first published on 20 July 2015.)
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