Feature
‘Raje not snubbed by party leadership in Delhi’
Jaipur: Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s office on Saturday denounced “some TV channels” for telecasting false and misleading news.
The statement issued by the media advisor to the chief minister said, “Some of the TV channels as usual are airing untrue reports”.
The statement said the reports being shown on TV channels say that the chief minister did not get time from senior party leaders and received no assurance from them.
“These reports are completely untrue and baseless. These are far away from truth. Verify before running or publishing reports,” the statement said, adding that the chief minister had gone to Delhi only to attend the NITI Aayog meeting, after which she returned to Jaipur as there was no pre-scheduled plan to meet anyone in Delhi.
Raje returned to Jaipur on Saturday afternoon after reportedly failing to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah in the wake of charges that she helped former Indian Premier League chief Lalit Modi.
The chief minister, who left on Saturday morning to attend a NITI Aayog meeting, spent some time at her house in Delhi before flying back to Jaipur in the afternoon, a source close to Raje said.
Though her office insisted that nothing else, except the NITI Aayog meet, was scheduled in the national capital, political analysts view her failure to meet the BJP’s top leaders as a snub.
BJP sources said Raje, under attack from the opposition which wants her to quit, wanted to meet Prime Minister Modi, Shah as well as Home Minister Rajnath Singh to narrate her side of the story on the Lalit Modi issue.
“It seems that after being denied an audience by the top leadership, she felt it is better to come back to Jaipur,” said a BJP functionary requesting anonymity.
“She will certainly try again to reach out to the central leadership, and may send her close confidants from here (Jaipur) to meet them in the next couple of days,” he added.
The Rajasthan BJP is standing by the chief minister, saying that all the allegations hurled against her are baseless.
Rajasthan Health Minister Rajendra Rathore has said: “The party is fully behind the chief minister. There is no questioning of her resigning.
The State Scores Extra High on Gaming-Friendly Industry Index
Meghalaya scored 92.85 out of 100 possible points in a Gaming Industry Index and proved to be India’s most gaming-friendly state following its recent profound legislation changes over the field allowing land-based and online gaming, including games of chance, under a licensing regime.
The index by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) uses a scale of 0 to 100 to measure the level of legalisation on gambling and betting achieved by a state based on the scores over a set of seven different games – lottery, horse racing, betting on sports, poker, rummy, casino and fantasy sports
Starting from February last year, Meghalaya became the third state in India’s northeast to legalise gambling and betting after Sikkim and Nagaland. After consultations with the UKIBC, the state proceeded with the adoption of the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 and the nullification of the Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act, 1970. Subsequently in December, the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021 were notified and came into force.
All for the Tourists
The move to legalise and license various forms of offline and online betting and gambling in Meghalaya is aimed at boosting tourism and creating jobs, and altogether raising taxation revenues for the northeastern state. At the same time, the opportunities to bet and gamble legally will be reserved only for tourists and visitors.
“We came out with a Gaming Act and subsequently framed the Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021. The government will accordingly issue licenses to operate games of skill and chance, both online and offline,” said James P. K. Sangma, Meghalaya State Law and Taxation Minister speaking in the capital city of Shillong. “But the legalized gambling and gaming will only be for tourists and not residents of Meghalaya,” he continued.
To be allowed to play, tourists and people visiting the state for work or business purposes will have to prove their non-resident status by presenting appropriate documents, in a process similar to a bank KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure.
Meghalaya Reaches Out to a Vast Market
With 140 millions of people in India estimated to bet regularly on sports, and a total of 370 million desi bettors around prominent sporting events, as per data from one of the latest reports by Esse N Videri, Meghalaya is set to reach out and take a piece of a vast market.
Estimates on the financial value of India’s sports betting market, combined across all types of offline channels and online sports and cricket predictions and betting platforms, speak about amounts between $130 and $150 billion (roughly between ₹9.7 and ₹11.5 lakh crore).
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Delhi are shown to deliver the highest number of bettors and Meghalaya can count on substantial tourists flow from their betting circles. The sports betting communities of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are also not to be underestimated.
Among the sports, cricket is most popular, registering 68 percent of the total bet count analyzed by Esse N Videri. Football takes second position with 11 percent of the bets, followed by betting on FIFA at 7 percent and on eCricket at 5 percent. The last position in the Top 5 of popular sports for betting in India is taken by tennis with 3 percent of the bet count.
Local Citizens will Still have Their Teer Betting
Meghalaya residents will still be permitted to participate in teer betting over arrow-shooting results. Teer is a traditional method of gambling, somewhat similar to a lottery draw, and held under the rules of the Meghalaya Regulation of the Game of Arrow Shooting and the Sale of Teer Tickets Act, 2018.
Teer includes bettors wagering on the number of arrows that reach the target which is placed about 50 meters away from a team of 20 archers positioned in a semicircle.
The archers shoot volleys of arrows at the target for ten minutes, and players place their bets choosing a number between 0 and 99 trying to guess the last two digits of the number of arrows that successfully pierce the target.
If, for example, the number of hits is 256, anyone who has bet on 56 wins an amount eight times bigger than their wager.
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