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Matka (illegal two-digit gambling) is a fascinating subject. In the past, it used to be called 'cotton figures', because the result used to be based on the closing two digits of the US exchange cotton prices for the day. For instance, if the US price was $29.58 then 58 was the winning number.
This arrangement brought in transparency into the system.
Things have changed a lot, of course, since.
In school, we had a teacher who knew that schoolboys of a particular age get tickled pink by talk about illegal gambling and the like. So, this Maths teacher of us literally shocked us one day by taking out a diary, in which he had maintained detailed listings of 'matka' results.
Our teacher then went to dedicate the next 10-15 minutes of our tution time to explaining to Roy, Joe, Hugo and myself how the system worked. He tried to explain symmetry in the results... maybe we were just imaginative, we saw none.
He swore that there was a statistical and authentic way in which one could crack the 'matka' gamble, and come out a winner everytime. You just had to keep backing a certain number, and make sure you doubled your bets each week. Then, and this is crucial: quit the moment you win!
The longer it takes to win, the bigger will be the prize. This will make up for all your earlier losses.
Theoretically possible to come out a winner, but you'd probably go bankrupt many times over before actually managing it. That's what our teacher warned us too, lest we get the wrong ideas.
Obviously Cecil wasn't a shishya to the same guru ;-)
This is exactly what happened to many a poor denizen of Goa, who got ruined by this seemingly extremely-attractive form of gambling. Unlike the legalised gambling that was slipped through virtually unnoticed in a Ravi Naik Congress-ruled raj and thrives in an otherwise-puritanical BJP-ruled Goa, there are no glamour women or the right mix of drink and food to egg you on, along with floating bedrooms. But 'matka' is tantalising nonetheless.
Everytime you lose, it seems that you have just missed by a hair's whisker.
For instance, our friend "Lapit" tells Cecil that he missed because when advised to play 60, he should have played 06 as well. Let me add that if the winning number was 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, or 69, Elton could have given Cecil the feeling that he, again, just missed. Likewise, anyone taking the advice would have felt the whizzing air of a near-miss even if the result had been 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 70, 80, 90 or 00 (just one digit wrong!) Similarly, you can go on with imagined closeness.
Many a family has been ruined by gambling. I was told that the earlier Haturli Swami, despite his rather extreme views on some aspects of politics, played a very useful role in weaning a number of poor Goans out of the clutches of gambling and/or alcohol. Maybe someone who knows things better could confirm.
Cecil's claim that the odds are fairly good at 80/100 is debatable. What, in effect, this means is that the matka organisers are the only real winners -- assuming bets are evenly spread on every number, then the kingpin or the organising syndicate collects Rs 100 and gives back Rs 80.
Added to this, there are other complications. I don't know how serious the issue is, but in the past there were reports about results being occasionally rigged and numbers changed when there was heavy betting on one number or another (which turned to be the winning number). Results, in those days, came in by telephone from Bombay, and needless to say, those with the 'matka' connection always had the fastest phone links for the then-scarce outstation calls.
In addition, I don't want to sound puritanical here, but it seems that nobody has yet studied the societal cost of a gambling system that plays a significant role in furthering corruption among the law-enforcing agencies. It is a known fact that some prominent politicians, currently too, have links with the illegal two-digit gambling. Cecil, who has raised this issue, might know who these honourable gentlemen are.
Just because other forms of gambling have got legal sanction, doesn't make the social impact of 'matka' any different. Incidentally, the way in which the state politicians sneaked the former through is a story in itself. Normally, important Cabinet decisions are expected to be announced at the day's official briefing. This story was first noticed when the Economic Times carried a story -- from Delhi -- announcing Goa's plans to allow 'hungry tigers' (as the one-armed bandits were called) to get going.
One of our journalist colleagues, Anthony Fernandes, currently in the Gulf, was subject to a brutal assault subsequent to his writing a front-paged piece that the "Goa Protectors" were to start matka operations of their own. FN
On Sat, 23 Oct 2004, lino dourado wrote:
Hi Cecil,
Elton, the 'Bachelor Boy' predicted number 60. You florist, don't you know how to play with combinations as you would do with flowers?
Soddanch khell at'to pot'to. Sozmolo mure?
Lapit
--- Cecil Pinto ------
Elton De Souza claims he can predict the matka number. Perhaps he should directly interact with Alfred Tavares. If Alfred can keep a sufficient amount of money with me here I can play Elton's predicted numbers on Alfred's behalf. Of course playing Elton John's numbers would be more fulfilling, considering that Elton's prediction of 60 for Kalyan was totally wrong (45 that day) but surprisingly main was 06 on the same day, which is quite close to Elton's prediction. .
