Cricket viewing nowadays is a very rewarding experience, literally. While watching the marquee clash between India and Pakistan, this correspondent pocketed cashbacks.

How?

Simple. Just by guessing the outcome of the next delivery bowled while watching the live streaming of the match. In between, the viewer gets the chance to score extra points by answering trivia questions. For example: How many ODI wickets did Greg Chappell take in his career? 40 points for the correct answer, which is 72 (I got it wrong by the way).

Imagine the lure of engaging in this activity on a bigger scale?

In India, this temptation has snared many people, unfortunately majority of them youngsters and college kids.

With online betting fraught with danger, how about dabbling in online fantasy sports? Where there’s no fear of being arrested.

A report by KPMG and India Federation of Sports Gaming estimated the number of online users at 2 crore.

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The rise of fantasy sports platforms has whetted the appetite of a section of our vast cricket crazy population for making a quick buck.

Dream11 is a platform which has gained immense popularity in the past couple of years. The online gaming platform has also been the darling of venture capitalists and earlier this year entered the elite club of privately-held startups valued at $1 billion or more.

Such has been the impact of the gaming platform that not only youngsters, but even family members and friends have begun competing with each other and passionately stay glued to their smartphones, keeping a tab on the points garnered.

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Bolstered by a ruling of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Dream11 has been able to sidestep the tag of gambling.

What starts out as a fun activity turns into an addiction and there have been media reports of people losing big amounts money on Dream11.

Whether it is a kosher form of gambling is something the government has to decide. Till then, with blessings of ICC and BCCI, Dream11 is on course to change the lives of cricket lovers, although not everyone might be lucky enough to make a killing.

Every IPL season, there are reports of betting rackets being busted and punters nabbed from hideouts. The trail often leads to a network of operatives with links to mafioso or celebrities.

Nowadays, any software engineer worth his salt can easily start a betting website and get around firewalls to rake in the moolah.

With online betting offering easy money and social media used as a conduit, youngsters are easy prey.

A report in The Hindu a month ago revealed how a 23-year-old MBA graduate was sucked into the world of online betting and ended up being nabbed by the cops for his shenanigans.

Police officials discovered that the punters had built websites like Bullsexch1.com, kingexch.com, osgbook.com.

Opening a website entails a cost of Rs 1-2 lakh and in India, there are many web designers available to set it up in lieu of a fee/commission.

A recent report suggested that cellphones were instrumental in reducing crime wars in the 1990s.

In a separate report, economists had credited the fall in property crime to increased usage of payments by cards and transfers.

But it has been proved quite often that scamsters are equally adept at using technology to aid their interests.

In India, the advent of cellphones and VOIP services gave impetus to betting activities.

Even the broadcasters have fallen prey to the handiwork of bookies. A report in The Wire last year threw light on how the bookies had managed to hack into the live feed of IPL matches.

In a country like India, how do we place betting as an activity? Through various platforms, it has cut across demographics and despite the vagaries associated with it, continues to charm people to invest their money.

With a weak Gambling Act and huge amount of money sloshing around, it is the responsibility of the authorities to frame proper laws and establish certain rules.

Betting activities may have metamorphosed into more organised setups but somewhere in the chain, there are a few people who know that they have killed the joy of watching a game of cricket.