New Delhi: The Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) may be contemplating forming a special team to study retired chief justice RM Lodha Commission's recommendation to make sports betting legal in India, but bookies controlling the Rs 100,000 crore illegal market are unruffled.


Punjab Police arrest three alleged cricket bookies at Amritsar in 2007. Pic for representation purpose only

On the contrary, they remain positive that India will never legalise sports betting. The bookies, who control the market that stretches from Singapore to the United States and neighbouring Canada, claim the Indian legal system will take many years before arriving at any logical conclusion and turn the recommendation into a law. Worse, it will be difficult for the board to muster political support for the move.