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KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 19Police have arrested two bookies of the world's leading online betting platform from Kathmandu valley for illegally facilitating betting during FIFA World Cup.
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The bookmakers are Sunil Chauguthi, 31, of Ward No 9 of Changunarayan Municipality and Ajaya Bhel, 25, of Ward No 8 of Suryabinayak Municipality in Bhaktapur district.
They were working as bookies for Cyprus-based 1X BET, an online betting platform which operates in countries where betting is legal.
Any form of gambling or betting is illegal for Nepali people inside the country.
The arrestees have been found transacting over Rs 30 million of the general people's money in six months.
However, police said that over two thirds of the transaction were made in the last one month during the 2022 FIFA World Cup.The arrested were found operating at least 40 bank accounts for banking transactions, as per police.However, a known amount of Rs 30 million was received from seven banks operated by Chauguthi and five bank accounts of Bhel.
Police are still awaiting replies from other banks about the total amount of money in their accounts.They were chosen as bookies for 1xBet through various means.
Nepali people who wished to bet would deposit money through digital payment system in the given account numbers operated by the agents.
If the betters won, the 1xBet asks the duo to return the money to the winners while the losers' money is saved in the account of agents like Chauguthi and Bhel.Police suspect that there could be more agents like Chauguthi and Bhel in the country.
Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office Superintendent of Police Krishna Prasad Koirala said that the 1xBet often chooses its clients in Nepal by identifying the person who has lost large amount of money.
"They send e-mails and even make calls on Viber or WhatsApp and lure the person to be their agent in exchange of handsome cut of the profit," Koirala said.He further said such agents never know the identity of the person who calls them.
After being an agent and collecting a handsome amount, the agent sends the money to the betting operators through Hundi from Nepal to abroad.Koirala said that easily available SIM cards from grocery shops and misuse of digital payment system in Nepal had led to such crimes where many youths could fall in the trap of gambling or lose their fortune.Earlier, on December 11, two bookmakers, Rudra Prasad Pokharel of Palpa, and Indian national Paban Kumar Sharma, who lives in Kathmandu, were arrested.
On December 12, Aadarsha Thakur, an engineering student, was arrested for illegally transacting more than Rs 20 million through his various digital wallet accounts.A version of this article appears in the print on December 20, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
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This article first appeared/also appeared in https://thehimalayantimes.com
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