Number Betting
Some people believe that illegal gambling in general and matka business (numbers racket) in particular are on the decline following the spread of state lotteries, but matka activities, as easy sources of money-making, continue to exist in a large number of cities. Numbers betting is predominantly a feature of urban poor life.
One estimate is that more than one-fourth of daily wage earners and low-salary class workers (like rikshaw-pullers, sweepers, kerosene-oil sellers, auto-rikshaw drivers, masons, labourers engaged in construction work, and domestic servants) spend an average of twenty rupees a week on numbers. Numbers betting is simple in concept and easy to do.
The gambler simply picks any one or two digit number and bets that this number will correspond to the winning number, selected in accordance with some predetermined procedure.
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The pay-off exceeds between five and twenty times the amount invested. Earlier, this betting business was done by individuals but now organisations have taken over this business because an organisation can manage money and muscle to keep off the cops and politicians from breaking up the game and shaking down the players operators.
Secondly, only a big organisation can pay up when the bank gets hit very hard. The organisation of this business is simple. The ‘bets’ are picked up by ‘agents’ in shops, office-buildings, factories, or simply on the street-corner. The ‘agents’ pass the money and betting slips on to local ‘collectors’ in charge of their neighborhood.
The ‘collectors’ pass the money to the ‘controller’ (boss) or ‘owner’. At pay-off time, the money simply follows the reverse route. The agents and collectors get a commission on the money that is collected. Several states have banned matka business but it still operates on a large scale.