There’s been a lot of talk about the Indian economy, but here’s something shocking: the amount of money bet on the 2024 Lok Sabha elections is equal to the GDP of a Central American country like Panama!
Betting circles estimate that around Rs 6 lakh crores to Rs 7 lakh crores were wagered on the elections. This figure is much higher than the Rs 2.5 lakh crores estimated two months before the elections.
The betting stopped once the elections ended and exit polls started airing. Just like the exit polls, bookies are predicting a win for the BJP-led NDA government, expecting them to get 304 to 308 seats, with the overall NDA winning around 350 seats.
The Congress is expected to secure 60 to 62 seats. There are no predictions for the Opposition’s INDIA bloc.
All the betting was done online using websites cloned from legal sites abroad since betting is illegal in India except for horse racing.
Around 300 cloned websites operated in a franchise model, all following the same rates. Bookies provided links, logins, and passwords to punters to place bets.
New punters had to make advance deposits ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 100 crores.
Shockingly, minors also got involved in betting, using their addiction to online gaming apps to access these illegal sites.
