The fall killed real-money gaming

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On 20 March, 1897, the Bengal Legislative Council launched a invoice calling for the precise banning of a observe referred to as “rain gambling”. 

Rain playing, also called Barsat ka Satta, was a type of hypothesis the place folks would place bets over future rainfall, i.e., the amount and length of rain throughout a window of time, when the monsoon would arrive, and the way lengthy it will final. This type of betting was particularly in style with the Marwari group, who introduced it with them from Rajasthan as they emigrated to varied elements of India… together with Bengal. 

You’d assume that betting on rainfall could be a random pastime exercise, but it surely was something however. In reality, it received so in style that the British colonial authorities received fairly involved, going as far as to even amend legal guidelines to ban the observe in Bombay (now Mumbai). 

And now, Bengal was within the crosshairs. In 1894, Sir John Lambert, the Police Commissioner, famous that rain playing was one of many main actions within the Burra Bazaar space of Calcutta (now Kolkata). Lambert writes that the observe precipitated site visitors jams and obstructions of the streets, which have been stuffed with gamblers. Betting homes sprung up everywhere in the metropolis. Although the Marwari group have been those who initially began it, in line with him, “others have been attracted, and now crowds of all races collect: Europeans, Arabs, East Indians, West Indians, Native Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muhammadans, Arabs, native females, and even children”.

And betting on the rain wasn’t only a leisure exercise. 

People took it actually critically.

There’s an internet site referred to as Dharohar, an initiative by the Securities and Exchange Commission of India (SEBI) that chronicles the historical past of buying and selling in India.