Dinesh Kamath's news item 'Crackdown on spot-fixing racket leads bookies to go underground and lose big amount of money' that was published in Newsband

Crackdown on spot-fixing racket leads bookies to go underground and lose big amount of money

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: Even women have been found betting at IPL matches. One woman happened to lose Rs. 17 lakh but when the bookie demanded the amount she refused to part with the sum by saying that the matches were being fixed. The bookie threatened to report her name to a dangerous underworld don. But the woman in question was not at all frightened and threatened to lodge a rape case against the bookie who was demanding money from her. The bookie was frightened and all he could do was to flee from the spot.

The bookies have suffered heavy loss owing to the recent crackdown on the spot-fixing racket. The bookies in Navi Mumbai are also the sufferers owing to this drive against match-fixers that the police have been conducting. These bookies are not able to recover their money from the Punters, who have an excuse that the matches were fixed owing to which they lost the bet. In other words, the punters have now turned the tables on the bookies.

There are many women in Navi Mumbai and also neighbouring areas who love to bet on the IPL matches. Among the women who placed bets on the IPL matches there is a Bollywood actor's mother, a prominent yester-year’s actress, a sitting Congress corporator, a Sena corporator and many more.

The exposure of spot-fixing scam led to bookies going underground and they tried to contact their clients who owed them big amount. But their clients are refusing to pay the amount since they claim that the bookies cheated them by taking bets from them and then fixing the matches to rob them of profits.

The plight of some of the bookies is pathetic since they happened to have borrowed money on interest from the market to place the bets but the exposure of spot-fixing scam led them to go in the hiding owing to which they are not able to recover huge amount that their clients owe them. Also their clients are become smarter and they refuse to pay the amount since the matches, according to them, were fixed. The thing is these bookies have to answer their underworld dons for their failure to pay the amount and this has put their lives in danger.