By Sanjeev Kotnala
You watch the IPL matches and will see many online fantasy sports game portals advertising inclusive playing, prize money or a game for everyone’s choice with possible economic risk and addiction rider. It is clearly legalised sports under the guise of a ‘Game of Skill’. But betting and gambling online or offline is not legalised in the country.
It’s a scam. A make-believe world of betting, and there is nothing predictable.
No skillsets can help you make judicious investments in such bets.
It is hard to believe that when fantasy sports and betting involve an element of chance or luck, one is legally allowed and the other criminalised.
I agree with the Times of India article, which questions the difference in the skillset required to pick a team and bet on its performance versus picking and betting on a player’s performance or an event outcome. And that makes fantasy sports gambling.
Just because in fantasy sports, one selects a team of players and competes against other gambling/ betting participants based on past real-life performance does not make it a game of skill.
Your chances of success or failure do not change drastically.
Fantasy sports are as addictive and are as risky as any other form of betting.
How are poker and Teen Patti played offline different from playing online?
If offline is gambling, then online is also gambling.
It does not matter if you drink at home or at a pub when you drink and drive.
Fantasy sports will want you to believe that it requires research, strategy, knowledge of the sport, playing conditions and past data analysis and that it is not simply a matter of luck. And they know how foolish it sounds.
Talk to an average fantasy sports participant and check his or her considerations in team selection. It is as good as picking the winning number in a series of Roulette tables.
And we are allowing fantasy sports to operate without regulations.
We are asking online gaming, including fantasy sports, to self-regulate!!
As the quantum increases and the bets scale up, fantasy sports could lead to corrupt practices, including match-fixing. As the players and the companies get incentivised to manipulate the outcomes.
Yes, fantasy sports are a popular and growing industry, entertaining and engaging.
Fantasy Sports and online gaming have economic risk and additional possibilities like the single-digit lottery. And if one looks at the potential benefits and risks, including social and cultural context, it does not make sense.
One could argue that if regulated and adequately taxed, legalising betting/ gambling will generate revenue. It would create jobs. Legalisation would leave to consumer protection and decrease the scale and control the degree of illicit activities.
It would do everything expected from legalised fantasy sports.
Ultimately, one can argue that an adult should have the right to decide to gamble online and offline if it is adequately regulated and legalised with age verification, self-exclusion, and gambling addiction prevention.
However, betting/ gambling has a potentially harmful side. Should its advertising be banned? Like that of smoking and drinking. It is another subject of discussion once we agree to close or open our eyes to the sham of the ‘Game of Skill’.
Conversely, it should be a matter of personal choice and freedom. However, as in a democracy, it is for the central and state governments and courts to determine the best course of action in the interests of the public, keeping possible addiction, social problems, and moral issues in focus.
We do know that every such decision is not guaranteed success. It is nothing but open-eyed conscious gambling into the future expectations and experiences under the disguise of a ‘Game of Skill’. Not always right, not always in the best interest.