mid-day 38th anniversary: Here is what Matka gambling of '90s is now up to

Vinod Bhagat, son of Kalyanji Bhagat, calls the '90s the glory years of the gambling business. Pic /Bipin Kokate

In its heyday, 'matka' was the great leveller. The multi-crore gambling business, ingeniously birthed in 1962 by Worli grocery shop owner Kalyanji Bhagat as a spin-off of the betting on the opening and closing rates of cotton transmitted from the New York Cotton Exchange, was where even "the stars" tried their luck.

"My father started the Worli matka and branched out to other areas due to rising demand. From the lower middle-class to big businessmen and film stars, everyone wanted a piece of the pie," recalls Vinod Bhagat, Kalyanji's son. "When the panna (the chits on which the winning numbers were written) were opened, the crowds spilled out onto the roads."

The returns justified the large turnouts. A Re 1 bet on a single panna could earn Rs 150, a double panna Rs 250, and a 'trial' (triple) panna could rake in Rs 800-Rs 900, says Bhagat.

Rise and rise
The matka business thrived through the 1980s and touched its peak the following decade. Betting volumes in excess of R500 crore were laid every month. More than 2,000 big- and medium-time bookies had Mumbai in a death grip, so much so that people often sold their property to cut their losses. "Once, a man lost R1 lakh in matka in the '90s. He left his Mercedes car in lieu of the cash," reveals Bhagat, who is also brother to 'matka king' Suresh Bhagat, who carried on their father's 'legacy'.
Suresh took over the reins in 1993 following Kalyanji's death, but was killed in 2007 by his estranged wife, Jaya Chheda, and Suhas Roge, her boyfriend and close aide of gangster Arun Gawli.

Matka's free run began to end in 1995 when it emerged that the business was funding the underworld. The police launched a massive crackdown on dens, forcing dealers to shift base to the city's outskirts or to move to Gujarat, Rajasthan and other states. With money drying up, many punters also opted for other sources of gambling like online and zhatpat lotteries, and in recent years, betting on cricket matches.

Dens of iniquity
Today, the business is restricted to the underground as well as the online economy. Dens still operate in Sewri, Dongri, Vashi naka and Antop Hill, albeit clandestinely. Bets are largely placed via phone from noon to midnight. Matka slots open at 4.30 pm and 9.20 pm, and shut at noon and midnight, respectively. Bets are placed on both opening and closing slots. At a Sewri den, the manager, juggling three phones, accepts high bets and jots them down in his diary. A bunch of lackeys mill around. Punters putting in less than R100 are given a receipt and asked to wait their turn. Money never changes hands on the premises; a man sits around 100 m away just to collect the bets. Four lookouts are placed at strategic points around the den to alert the manager of any police presence. Each is paid R500-R1,000 per day.

Every gambling den's manager is a history-sheeter -- an ex-con or an externed criminal. One manager says he ended up with this job because no one was willing to give him another.

Bets start as low as R10; there is no upper limit. "Back in the '90s, they started at 25 paise. Also, a den used to earn R1.50 lakh a day then. Now, the earnings touch R20 lakh," says a source from a gambling den.

Will this payoff continue to be on the high? All bets are off!

R1.5L
Daily earnings of gambling dens in the '90s

Rs 20L
Daily earnings of matka dens as of today