05 Apr 2010  |   12:00am IST

Matka is back in Margao, thanks to police patronage

MARGAO, APRIL 4 After lying low during the budget session of the Goa Legislative Assembly, matka gambling is back out in the open � thanks to the police patronage for the gambling activity.

MARGAO, APRIL 4 
After lying low during the budget session of the Goa Legislative Assembly, matka gambling is back out in the open – thanks to the police patronage for the gambling activity.
Almost all the stalls conducting matka gambling at prominent places in the commercial capital are back with the usual activity. Most of stalls and the matka bookies had literally gone underground during the Assembly session after the Margao police issued directives to the operators to either lie low or stop the activity in toto.
Sources in the know say the gambling activity has now come out in the open as usual with the police turning a blind eye to the activity, notwithstanding that matka bets are accepted in kiosks located at a stone’s throw away from the Margao Police Station.
Matka gambling in the commercial capital and in the jurisdiction of the Margao Police Station has turned a big time business, with the activity not only generating turn over running into crores of rupees, but provides employment to hundreds of youth in the lane and by-lanes of the city, sources said.