The All Indian Gaming Federation wrote to the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi last week suggesting that if the country legalized betting on sports, the revenue generated could help field a better Olympic team next time.
The letter to the PM described how the various governing bodies of sports other than cricket lack money, something that led to India’s poor performance in the Rio Olympics.
AIGF, a nonprofit launched last month, has as its objectives the dissemination of information and the promotion of sporting and gaming activities.
It is not the first to broach the subject of legalized sports betting. Chief Justice Rajendra Mal Lodha several years ago suggested that it would improve sports facilities and eliminate fraud. The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry published a report recommending a 20 percent tax on sports betting and would be second only to print and TV revenues as a moneymaker for the government.
AIGF CEO Roland Landers declared, “The National Lottery [of the UK] gives a lump sum to UK Sport, which gives a proportion of it to regional sporting bodies and then specifically targets those Olympic and Paralympic events in which UK athletes have a sporting chance. They, then, choose the potential champions they will fund and pay for their coaching and in many cases give them grants to live on while they train.”
Britain, of course, was very successful in the Olympics this year, winning more medals than it had won since 1908, second only to the United States. That success was funded by gaming, said Landers.
In January the Supreme Court appointed a committee that recommended legalizing better on cricket as a way to stop fraud.
