Bookmakers set to return to Bangalore Turf Club

Bengaluru: Cash-strapped Bangalore Turf Club got a shot in the arm as the State Government is all set to approve the licenses of the bookmakers who will be back at the venue this weekend when the marquee HPSL Bangalore Summer Derby will be staged.

The licences of the bookmakers were not renewed by the state government since the start of April after a Central Crime Branch raid at BTC in January led to the arrest of 66 people over irregularities in bookkeeping and allegations of evasion of GST (good and services tax).

In fact, even BTC didn’t get the licence to conduct racing -- both on and off-course betting -- since the beginning of April after being at loggerheads with the the state government over several issues. Eventually, Arvind Raghavan had to step down as the chairman along with his committee and the BTC got the licence to conduct races on June 13 but without any bookmakers. 

From Saturday, however, around 17 bookmakers will be granted licenses following a thorough scrutiny from the state government. 

“It was a question of survival of the Bangalore Turf Club because the bookmakers are the lifeline of the club,” interim chairman Uday Easwaran said on the sidelines of the derby draw ceremony on Thursday. The derby is scheduled for Sunday.

“Without bookmakers our totalisators have collapsed. The totes too have collapsed with the new GST in place. From a Rs 2,200 crore turnover company, we have been reduced to Rs 300 crore turnover company today because of the 28 percent GST. So we were banking on bookmakers who gave us licensing fee which was helping manage our finances.

“On-course racing, with the expenses involved, was a losing proposition without bookmakers. We make our money during off-course betting. Approval has been granted to 17 bookmakers while others are in line to get them. The state government is scrutinising them and once they meet all the conditions they too will be granted license to operate.”

Easwaran, completely aware of the controversies over the recent past and handed the onerous task of steadying the ship, thanked the government for the approval. "During my meeting with Additional Chief Secretary, Finance LK Atheeq, I told him that BTC is happy to be under heavy scrutiny. They were aware that without bookmakers it'll be hard to run racing. So they wanted to know how we intend to curb illegal bookkeeping.

"I made 13-slide presentation during which I showed them how racing is conducted internationally and what are the deficiencies in BTC. Going forward, each bookmaker will need to have a laptop/ tablet and point of sale machines. Whenever a bet is placed a receipt has to be generated. And all the transactions will be connected to a centralised server in BTC̣. This will be implemented in the coming months."