Legalising gambling in sports will create lots of problems: CPI

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Veteran Communist leader Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy said today legalising gambling and betting in sports would create "lots of problems", leave room for cheating and provide no level-playing field.

The Law Commission yesterday recommended that gambling and betting in sports be allowed as regulated activities taxable under the direct and indirect tax regimes and used as a source for attracting foreign direct investment. Reddy, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI), said the issue is yet to be discussed in his party but his initial reaction is that it is not good.

"If betting and gambling are legalised, it will create lots of problems," he told PTI. "My initial reaction is negative about it." The commission's report, "Legal Framework: Gambling and Sports Betting including Cricket in India," recommends a number of changes in the law for regulating betting and generating tax revenues from it.

Reddy said: "Gambling is gambling after all, why should it be legalised? Betting is also a sort of gambling."

"Gambling is not a game that will give all the partners equal type of opportunity and all that. Some people will lose lots of money. Some people will gain. There is always a possibility of cheating and deceiving also," he said.

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