Big setback for online betting on horse racing

By Sharan Kumar

 

The online betting operations on horse racing in India have suffered a setback with many payment gateways withdrawing their services. Razorpay, India’s leading payment gateway provider has informed the online platforms that the UPI payment option will be discontinued from December 31 due to regulatory changes, according to information available in the public domain.

 

The change is reportedly due to NPCI directing payment gateway service providers to stop using the UPI platform for facilitating payments related to online betting. As its against law

 

After this post was published, the Razorpay corporate communications team reportedly stated that their message was erroneously sent out to a few gaming merchants. The payment platform has clarified that operations will continue as usual.

 

However, the turf clubs in India which conduct online betting operations have put out a statement stating that betting operations would however continue as usual but deposits have to be made only through Paytm. However, no withdrawal will be permitted until further notice.

 

This is something that the punters would not be happy with as they need money for rotation as most of them have limited resources on hand.

 

A meeting of the Turf Authorities of India is being scheduled to take stock of the situation.

 

The much-touted National Tote has seen several deadlines. The present setback will also impair its operations considerably and hence it may be put off longer than anticipated.

 

There are no online betting operations on racing conducted in Bangalore and Mysore as the government is yet to give permission for the same. The Bangalore Turf Club which prided itself on its Rs 2000 crore turnover on tote per year has seen a big slump due to a combination of 28 per cent GST and the lackadaisical approach towards betting on the tote.

 

 The club would rather close its own operations on tote for upgradation while letting bookmakers operate without a break. Several days of racing, both on course and off course have been conducted without the tote operations but at the same time permitting bookmakers to operate. This reflects the priorities of the powers that be. In the past, not a single day’s racing was conducted without full-fledged tote operations. The punters too would not let betting take place even for one face if there was a technical glitch.

 

The tote betting has fallen to about Rs 400 crores after the GST hike and the return of the bookmakers who were not allowed to operate by BTC for a number of years. The BTC has been guilty of not doing enough to encourage tote betting.

 

Gone are the days , when you  could when the BTC used to operate more than 400 tote counters. At present, half of the counters operate and many of them are placed in the members' stands where the turnover is next to nothing. The steep entry fee has ensured that the number of patrons attending racing has dropped by half further affecting the turnover on the tote. Many of these punters bet only with the bookmakers.

 

BTC may be happy with the short-term benefit of a hike in entry fees but in the long, it will lose patrons forever. There are many illegal avenues to bet and the club itself can be blamed for encouraging the same.  

 

The BTC has taken extensive sponsorship from betting apps which conduct racing on Indian racing itself including Bangalore racing. The club has had no qualms about the same and has allowed itself to be ``wolfed’’. 

 

 

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