Gambling on Rain in India Big Business
The history of man is the history of gambling; wagering is inextricably intertwined with society back to the beginning of communication. A form of gambling which has a long and interesting past has resurfaced lately: the gambling on the monsoon in India.
The monsoon is the torrential rain lasting for weeks, which refills the rivers, revives the dying crops, soaks the cracked earth, tops the ancient resevoirs, and slakes the parched thirst of the people. Gambling on the date the monsoon begins, the ferocity or lack thereof with which it arrives, and the duration are all imbedded in Indian tradition.
Itinerant traders spread the tradition of monsoon betting in the 1800s; British authorities banned the practice in 1890. The ban worked as well as most prohibition, which is to say, not at all.
To this day the only legal gambling in India is on horse raqcing, although many forms of underground gambling exist; most popular of these is cricket wagering, similar to local U.S. bookies working out of neighborhood establishments and by cell phones.
Bookies allow monsoon gambling among established clientele to prevent detection by law enforcement. Yet, even with this restriction on play, it is estimated that over $1.2 billion is wagered each year on the monsoon.
Asked the attraction on gambling on the weather, one player pointed out that there is no danger of a fix. Sports gamblers familiar with recent NBA news understand this observation well.
This year the monsoon came earlier than anytime in over a hundred years, raking in profits for bookies. Still, there was a silver lining to all concerned: the early rain signals a bountiful harvest, after a period of poor crop growth. Food supplies both locally and internationally will be positively effected.
When people remark that a person would gamble on anything, even the weather, remember that observing the weather and betting on it are ancient traditions.
