Gambling in India: Past Present and Future

Gambling as a pastime has always been popular in India and continues to be so even in present-day India. Currently most forms of gambling are illegal in India except for the state-run lotteries (and that too only in some states) horse racing rummy card games and casinos (in only two of the twenty nine states). However many Indians gamble illegally: India has a huge illegal betting market and betting on sports such as cricket is extremely popular. Despite this gambling in India is seldom seen as a potentially addictive behaviour in academic discourse policy debate or clinical patient-doctor assessments and consequently has received little attention from academics policy makers and mental health professionals. However some of this is beginning to change: research has emerged recently suggesting that gambling and gambling-related problems are a matter of concern among Indians. Also the Indian Psychiatric Society in 2015 published a booklet on behavioural addictions and gambling addiction features significantly in it. To our knowledge there is no single monograph that comprehensively presents an overview of gambling in India - its evolution its legal aspects current scale and forms the illegal gambling scene research evidence treatment aspects and challenges for the future. As gambling and gambling addiction are in recent times entering the public’s interest and psychiatrists’ attention we see this as an opportune time to bring out this book. In this book we have brought together a group of eminent scholars from relevant fields who have the expertise and specialism to discuss their topics with authority and vision. We hope this book will be of interest to mental health professionals and others working in fields where gamblers or their loved ones seek help academics researchers and policy makers. Although the discussion here is limited to gambling in India this book might also interest those outside India especially those in the developing world where there is dearth of such work. It is our wish and aspiration that this effort of ours will spur further debate and interest in this topic.