?Satta? ruling the roost here

Card gambling is a thing of the past. Ruling the roost today is satta which has the dubious distinction of turning paupers into millionaires overnight, and, of course, the other way round also.

While the lesser known in this field may be many but four known names in this kind of gambling business are operating in a radius of three kilometres in and around Civil Lines.

Satta, they say, is played the way spot trading is carried out. In Hindi language it is known as 'Waida karobar'.

'Ek lagao sau milega, barah lagao bara sau milega'.

Satta begins after you put in stake Rs 12. In case you get your lucky number, within 15 minutes you are rich by Rs 1200. Else you lose the money you have put in. The process is fast.

New satta stakes are put in place every 15 minutes. This way in an hour satta is played four times. The game begins at 1 pm and closes at 6 pm precisely every day.

Sources say, the winning number comes from Poona through mobile but some insiders deny this claim. Everything is done locally by the kingpin who carries out this racket. And this has given rise to cheating, they say.

In sixties and seventies it was 'matka' in vogue. One Ratan Khatri was its kingpin who operated from Mumbai. Matka almost became extinct following the introduction of single digit lottery in which several states including UP minted huge sums.

This State-sponsored gambling came to an end after it was realised that it was snatching happiness from many homes.

So after lottery made exit it was time for satta which has now come to stay and is growing like mushroom.