NEW DELHI, March 17: India’s vast but illegal betting industry, which has already made a killing on the World Cup despite stepped-up police crackdowns in the cricket-crazy country, expects to hit a jumbo jackpot on the final, officials said Monday.

According to an estimate by privately-run Zee Television, a staggering 300 billion rupees (US$6.25 billion) worth of wagers has exchanged hands since the start of the 14-nation tournament on Feb 8.

The figure was three times higher than the amount national police agencies had initally estimated would be wagered during the tournament.

The TV station, quoting experts and some of India’s shadowy bookmakers, said the finals of the World Cup on March 23 was likely to see frenzied betting and rake in five billion rupees ($1 billion) “or more.”

“The World Cup saw the phenomenon of large betting networks shifting base to small towns and districts which we think was a result of our relentless drive,” a senior official from the Central Bureau of Investigation said.

“And what makes detection tough is that the bookies this time have a technological edge on us with mobile telephones and SMS (Short Message Service) to conduct their trade,” the official from the federal agency conceded.

A total of 202 major bookies have been arrested separately from the cities of Mumbai, Jaipur, Chennai and the Indian capital since the beginning of the World Cup in South Africa.

New Delhi police, who who had already launched seven crackdowns in which computers, illegal telephone exchanges, TV sets and millions of rupees were seized, struck lucky again on Sunday with the arrests of four wanted bookies.

Secret diaries recovered from the now-imprisoned punters have offered names of some of the rich and powerful men and women from across South Asia, which sent four national teams to the 14-nation game.

Police in Mumbai, which intensified the crackdown since the March 7 start of the Super Six clashes, said the heat on bookies will continue.

“We will not tolerate betting. Whoever is found involved in betting will be arrested,” said Mumbai’s Deputy Police Commissioner S. N. Pandey.

Mumbai’s prize catch — of 14 bookies — was on the eve of the Feb 15 India-Australia match but the city police department there was less successful on March 1 when 500 million rupees changed hands as India defeated arch-rival Pakistan.

Indian criminal laws prohibit public betting, with prison terms ranging up to three years.

Punters, however, are permitted to operate through closely-supervised operations at horse-racing tracks owned by the government.

In 2000 the Indian police exposed the cricketing world’s murkiest match-fixing scandal involving then South Africa skipper Hansie Cronje and late opened a can of worms by naming several domestic cricketers in the racket.

But bookmakers said that today it’s business as usual.

A Sri Lanka win over Australia on Tuesday would return five rupees on one but on Thursday Kenya-backers could go home wealthier by 25 rupees to one if rampaging India loses.

“The final is still 50:50 but there is a wager going on Sachin Tendulkar out for duck,” a bookie said of the ‘little master’ who is carrying the hopes of millions of Indian fans on his bat.—AFP