Satta Matka is a gambling game that arrived in India soon after its independence in the 1950s. It is also called Satta or Matka gambling. Even though gamblers played it offline in its nascent stages, now it is played mostly online.
It would be wrong to say that gambling is illegal in the entire country. It differs from state to state. States have the authority to formulate their own laws regarding gambling. Most gambling activities like organized betting are not allowed in India. However, there is a relief for specific categories like lotteries and horse racing. Betting on these is legal.
For example, there are states like Goa that have legalized casinos. At the central level, The Public Gambling Act of 1867 is in place, which lays out the guidelines for owners of a public gambling house on how to run it. The primary lotteries in India are Kerala Lottery, Nagaland State Lottery, Lottery Sambad Types, Kolkata FF Lottery, Shillong Teer Result, Lottery Sambad.
What is Satta Matka?
When started in the 1950s, Satta Matka had the name ‘Ankada Jugar’. The game evolved over the years, and now it is entirely different from how it started. Only the term ‘matka’ has remained from the olden times. In its present form, Satta Matka is a kind of lottery game centered around selecting random numbers and betting on them.
History of Matka betting
As mentioned earlier, Matka betting started in the 1950s. Mostly cotton mill workers used to bet on the opening and closing rates issued by the New York Stock Exchange transmitted to the Bombay Stock Exchange. They shared this information via teleprinters. But this came to an end when the New York Cotton Exchange stopped it in 1961.
But gamblers decided to find another way to keep the game alive despite the hindrance. They found their solution in chits of paper. Bookies wrote numbers from 0 to 9 on pieces of paper and put them inside a Matka or earthen pot. A person would place his hand inside the Matka and draw the winning numbers from it. But the Matka lottery did witness its fair share of changes with time. In the present form of the game, three numbers are drawn from a pack of cards when playing it offline.
Players choose three numbers from 0 to 9, and the sum of the three numbers is computed. This becomes one set of numbers. Similarly, betters choose the second set of numbers too from 0 to 9, and the sum of this is also calculated. If the sum is a two-digit number, then the last digit of the sum is taken. In this way, we arrive at two sets of numbers with four numbers each.
During the 1990s and 1980s, the Matka Business was its zenith. The betting volumes were extraordinary. A single month saw betting to the tune of Rs 50 crores. Naturally, it started getting attention too from legal authorities. The police force decided to keep law and order under control and planned a massive crackdown on such betting activities.
With everything happening in cyberspace, Matka betting wasn’t one to stay behind. The game is mainly played online now. A person does not pick the numbers, but they are generated automatically. The winning numbers are fool-proof and a hundred percent random. Various websites have come up which are the best place to play Matka online.
Is gambling illegal in India?
Yes, gambling has been illegal in India since the time of Britishers. The British Parliament passed the Public Gambling Act way back in 1867, which declared gambling illegal in India. This law is in force to this day. If you want to bet, you can only gamble on horse racing and lotteries. Since gambling is a state subject, different states have different laws for it. However, gambling based on skill is allowed.
Matka king
Any person who manages to win significantly in Satta Matka and earns a lot of money is called Matka king. But initially, people used the word to describe the leader of the gambling syndicate.
The original and oldest Matka king was Ratan Khatri. He ran a vast nationwide network of gambling from the early 1960s to the mid-1990s. There were lakhs of punters who worked under him and followed his orders. He had a net worth of several crores. It could be more than that too. Khatri breathed his last on May 9, 2020.
Types of Satta Matka games
The two most common forms of Matka games are Worli Matka and Kalyan Matka. The frequency of New Worli Matka is five days a week, from Monday to Friday. However, the Kalyan Matka is played on all seven days of the week.
Where can you play Satta Matka?
As mentioned earlier, presently, Satta Matka is played chiefly online now. There hasn’t been much of a change in the rules, though. If you are intrigued by the game and interested in playing it, you can pay a visit to any of the Matka betting websites.