Mumbai: In yet another crackdown on the Matka gambling in the city, the social service unit of the Mumbai Police Crime Branch arrested 13 people on Monday from the Dadar area.
According to the police, the unit received a tip-off about the gambling activity after which the raid was conducted. The area of operation was near Kranti Singh Nana Mandai at Senapati Bapat Road in Dadar West.
The accused were operating this online gambling activity without any registration or mandated licenses while pretending to be government-authorised lottery units, said the police.
After reaching the spot, the police arrested everyone who were at the time apparently busy gambling and also seized several properties including Rs44,240 cash, documents including Matka charts, booklets, chits of Matka numbers and other types of equipment like computers, screens and devices.
Matka gambling or satta, according to a police officer, is a form of betting and lottery revolving around numbers. In this game, the player guesses the winning number and then it is handwritten on a sheet of paper – also called chits. If the predicted number by the player is the same as shown on the screen ‘lottery number’ – then he or she gains a reward with cash. It is also known that people tend to hide their names in chits and mention only their initials as to hide their identity and thereby not get caught.
All the accused were arrested under the Maharashtra Prohibition of Gambling Act. Further investigation into the case is handed over to the Shivaji Park Police station.
