“I got into the betting business starting with the 2013 season of the Indian Premier League. I had befriended an Indian business­man in Thamel and he had given me the rates to the matches,” says Jeevan (30), a restauranteur who’s also a seasonal bookmaker. He takes bets on behalf of different “players” and forwards them to his ‘sources’ on the India-Nepal border. His first season of IPL betting brought him Rs 200,000 in profits and enough confidence to lure in more gamblers and act as a permanent agent of his Indian friend. He gathered bets for the IPL in the next edition (2014) as well, and then for the 2014 football World Cup. “I make money both from the bookmakers as well as from the commissions I get from the punters for collecting their bets. I now have a direct connection to many bookies in India and get the best rates,” says Jeevan. These days he collects bets for the Indian Premier League, the English Premier League and the Champions League and says he has been receiving countless bets for the 2018 World Cup.

 

Bibek (27) from Samakhushi is a regular “customer” of Jeevan. A student, he helps his family busi­ness in Thamel by the day and turns into an avid gambler by the night. “I love to watch football and I religiously follow all the leagues and know the players of all the teams. So I can make informed bets,” he says. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with making a little money based on your skills.” Just like oth­er punters in Nepal, Bibek and Jeevan do not see a valid reason behind the illegal status of sports betting in Nepal. They claim it is a mon­ey-making opportu­nity for fans, who should be allowed to put to use their expertise in sports.

 

Risk worth taking

 

Nepal’s ‘Gambling Act 1963’ out­laws any “game of chance based on a wager of money.” (This does not include a public lottery organized with government permission or games organized in a public fair or exhibition.) First-time violators have to pay a fine of Rs 200 and/or be detained for four days. There is provision for one to three months of imprisonment for the second time, and an imprisonment of one year for the third time. Many stakeholders, however, believe the penalties for these offences are frugal, which is why gambling activities are increasing.

 

“It is not the amount of fine or jail-term per se that act as deter­rents. The fact that betting is a crime should be enough to dissuade gam­blers,” says Ram Krishna Subedi, spokesperson for the Ministry of Home Affairs. “We are also aware of illegal gambling rackets. We have in the past arrested and penalized bookies and match-fixers. But unless we get a formal complaint of the World Cup racket you are talking about, we cannot do anything.”

 

Getting a formal complaint against bookmaking is difficult. Most of these gambling rings operate with­in a closed circle of gamblers who know each other well. Bookies use Facebook Messenger, Viber and mostly Whatsapp (which they con­sider the safest) to communicate. Many of them are well-connected to ranking officers of the security agencies and the government. The muscle-power they can summon at short notice also deters possible complainers. And it is hard for a gambler to complain about a bookie because just by betting the gambler too is part of the crime.

 

Bet 365

 

Initially, the bookies in Nepal operated through betting channels based in India, Bangladesh and even Sri Lanka, relying on illegal “hundis” for disbursement of money. But with the growth of cheap and reliable communication and with our youth getting more and more tech-savvy, multiple oper­ators have emerged in the Nepali betting circuit.

 

With the help of friends and fam­ilies abroad, many Nepalis have opened their own betting accounts with the global gambling websites, most of them with the Gibral­tar-based Bet 365. Thus despite government warning, many Nepali netizens fearlessly speak about their bets on social media. Untraceable international accounts, easy avail­ability of software to mask their IP addresses and disbursement of money through personal channels—they are assurance enough.

 

APEX also found a rare group of gamblers who are betting via inter­national bookmaking sites using cryptocurrency, which is banned in Nepal. Cryptocurrency has a strong trading presence among Kathman­du’s youth and this World Cup, a bunch of crypt maniacs have found a secure way to gamble without the fear of being caught. One person called Tiwari, an IT student and self-defined “crypto trader” spilled the beans for APEX.

 

“There are more than half a dozen secure betting sites that accept Bitcoin and other crypto­currencies. We’re using 1xBet right now. It’s clean, easy to use and very secure,” he said. Tiwari and his friends transfer the cryptocurren­cies they have in their crypto-wal­lets, like Bittrex, to 1xBet, which in turn gives them the dollar equiva­lent of their digital money, along with a bonus. The gamesters can then bet through the site and trans­fer their winnings back to their cryp­to-wallets in the form of cryptocur­rencies. Cryptocurrency trading is almost untraceable, especially with masked IP addresses.

 

Billion-rupee wager

 

“We’re small fish though,” says Jeevan, the bookie. “There are plen­ty of big players out there who bet in one night what most of us bet in the whole sea­son.” Jeevan is referring to the wealthy busi­nessmen and professional gam­blers who put stakes worth of millions in a single match. “Just this week, a person I know bet Rs 500,000 each on the favorites in the Germany-Mexico and Brazil-Swit­zerland matches. Germany lost and Brazil got a draw. The bookie won that night handsomely.”

 

So gamblers, big and small, are betting on the 2018 World Cup. Taking to social media to announce their earnings or discussing last night’s winnings at a tea-stall in Samakhusi, or throwing lavish celebrations in the restau­rants of Durbarmarg, the punters are undeterred and unabashed. While the government raids small gambling dens, those in the know say most of the big fish go unpunished. They have cov­ered their tracks well to be able to benefit from an estimated billion-rupee business.