Bookies now technically advanced, buying paid services to connect safely, hide locations

Bookies are using paid VAN (value-added network) service to hide their actual locations to prevent raids, as they say they are now interacting with thousands of new customers. The link/URL of the app is sent to trusted customers after taking the payments in advance.

IANS spoke to a few Hapur, Meerut, and Delhi-based bookies who are running betting rackets ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections and came to know how they have gone technically and digitally sound.

Bookie ‘Kapil’ (name changed on request) said that they are running their operations through different mobile applications and on social media. They provide specific URL for Rs 25,000 to their trusted users to download a mobile application through which their customers can place bets. New users need a reference from a trusted user.

“To bet, you will have to download an application into your cell phone on the specific URL we provide to our known customers. Once they have downloaded it, we give them back their Rs 25,000 into the wallet of the app. They can use this money to play satta,” he said.

Speaking to IANS, a bookie revealed that in the app, “we do betting on cricket, football, politics and on other things. Payment is instantly made once the result is declared be it politics or cricket. User can send the money to their bank account for which we charge 2 per cent extra”.

The bookies also keep changing the name of the applications.

A bookie said that to give the police a slip, they rely on the paid VAN service, bought from professional companies abroad to keep themselves safe while communicating. “Through VAN, we can change our IP address. It will show that we are operating from Hapur but we will be in Lucknow. Thus we will get time in case the police conduct raid at our locations. It will also help our customer concealing their identity which is good for our business,” said the bookie.

A police source in Hapur said that Raksh Khaddar and Sonu Teda were the main bookies of western UP, running rackets from Hapur, but now, they have gone underground. The source said that they came to know that two bookies, Ravi and Gagan, were operating but they were frequently changing their locations to dodge the police.

“We note that they have become technically sound… that is why a few things are not coming on our radar,” said the police source.

–IANS<br>atk/vd