Feature
Greek’s parliament approves debt deal, reforms to avert Grexit
Athens: Greek’s parliament on Thursday approved an omnibus draft bill ratifying the debt deal the government reached with creditors on Monday and the first round of reforms requested as prerequisites for the immediate release of international aid to avert imminent default and Grexit, media reports said.
It was the first of several draconian austerity bills demanded by Greece’s creditors as a condition for a third financial rescue of the heavily indebted nation, a news agency reported.
The vote, which came just before 2 a.m., was 229-64 with six abstentions.
Half of the “no” votes were cast by members of the governing leftist Syriza party, posing a major challenge to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who was forced to rely on the opposition to pass the legislation.
The 32 Syriza lawmakers who opposed the bill included Energy Minister Panayotis Lafazanis, erstwhile Deputy Finance Minister Nadia Valavani — who resigned Wednesday — and the former finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, who quit the government last week.
Thursday’s dramatic scene came less than three weeks after Tsipras went on Greek television to say that his government was turning down the proposal of the troika — the European Union, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund — and convening a July 5 referendum on the path forward.
To the surprise of many, more than 61 percent of those who cast ballots in the plebiscite voted to reject the troika proposal.
But instead of taking a harder line with the creditors, Tsipras and a majority of the cabinet decided to put forward a proposal capitulating to EU and ECB demands for additional austerity measures in a country whose economy has contracted 25 percent since 2010.
Before Thursday’s vote in parliament, Varoufakis described the agreement that emerged this week from marathon talks in Brussels between Greece and its Eurogroup partners as “a new Versailles Treaty”.
Tsipras pleaded for party unity in his speech before the vote, acknowledging that the terms of the agreement were harsh, but insisting that it represented the best choice available to Greece.
He said the position of the creditors left Athens with three options: accepting the deal; leaving the euro with the consent of the partners under a German proposal; or a disorderly exit from the single currency.
But even with parliamentary approval, the success of the deal is not assured.
The International Monetary Fund’s repeated proclamations that the Greek debt is unsustainable suggest it might not be party to the arrangement, while Germany views IMF participation as essential.
Syriza won election in January on a promise to throw off troika-mandated austerity that has pushed Greece’s unemployment rate above 25 percent even as the ratio of debt to gross domestic product has soared.
The latest estimate from the IMF calls for the Greek debt-to-GDP ratio to reach 200 percent over the next two years.
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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