The FIFA World Cup, the world’s biggest sporting event, is a big deal in Nepal. Whole streets have morphed overnight into makeshift Brazils, Argentinas and Spains. People can be seen going about their lives in the jerseys of their favorite teams. With live screenings, restaurants are doing a roaring business. Newspapers and TV channels are filled with endless news of Lionel Messi and Harry Kane.

There are indeed millions of die-hard World Cup aficionados in Nepal. Then there is another group of people who are perhaps even more interested in this quadrennial sporting extravaganza: the gamblers.

Sports betting is an established practice in the developed world but in the Indian subcontinent it is relatively new, and illegal. Nonetheless, thousands of Nepalis have wagered their money on the teams they fancy, despite the Kathmandu Chief District Officer’s clear warning before the World Cup that anyone involved in gambling would be penalized. Nor has the arrests of those involved in the Indian Premiere League bookmaking back in May deterred them. 

APEX reporters visited some suspected “gambling dens” of Kathmandu to find out more. Sports bars, restaurants, pubs and even small coffee shops and tea houses have become meeting points for these gamblers and bookies. On our expedition, we found gamblers staking just Rs 500 a game to high rollers betting hundreds of thousands. The bookies, for their part, came from all walks of lives, some temporarily taking up betting to make quick money, others earring a living out of it.

 

Full story on Sunday