Social activist Anna Hazare may have captured the imagination of India’s middle class by leading an agitation and wake the government up to corruption. However, his charm and charisma do not appear to have rubbed off on bookies and punters.
Sources from Rajasthan, Nagpur and Mumbai said Hazare’s agitation for a strong Lok Pal had not found favour with bookies and punters. “People bet on uncertainty when there are two, three or multiple options. In case of Hazare’s fast, punters, by and large, feel that even if the social activist continues his fast for up to 21 days it will not have any financial impact. Therefore, they are not at all keen to bet. In other words, Hazare’s fast is not an attractive bet for punters,” sources associated with betting told Business Standard.
Instead, they are more interested in laying bets on whether there will be an economic slowdown, whether gold and silver would continue to rise, and the fate of the test match and one-day between India and England and Sri Lanka and Australia, respectively.
There’s another factor distracting punters from laying bets on Hazare’s agitation. They have started celebrating Satam-Aatam — a much awaited annual event, meaning ‘before the birth anniversary of Lord Krishna’, which, this year falls on Monday (August 21). Punters across the country have started playing their cards to make quick bucks. This is a old tradition, for which people even leave from work.
On the other hand, a Nagpur-based source said punters and others alike were much more anxious about India’s fate in the wake of an economic slowdown. “The bigger question of what will happen to the Indian economy is attracting the attention of punters. This is crucial as punters are looking at several options such as investing in land, gold, silver, commodities, shares and funds. They are betting heavily on these odds,” he noted.
As far as the India-England test match is concerned, a Rajasthan-based source said punters were predicting a draw. They were also putting money on the one-day match between Sri Lanka and Australia. “A large number of bookies are busy in taking bets on this, and, at 83 paise, Australia is the favourite,” he added.