'Cricket Auctions Are A Gamble', Says Ex-Supreme Court Judge

Just four days ahead of the mega Indian Premier League player auction in Saudi Arabia, former Supreme Court judge, Justice Vikramjit Sen said bidding huge sums of money on cricketers was akin to 'gambling'. Justice Sen was speaking during the launch of the book titled 'Online Gaming in India - Technology, Policy and Challenges' at the India International Centre on Tuesday evening. The book, published by the Taylor and Francis group, has been edited by Professors Lovely Dasgupta and Shameek Sen of West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences.

The IPL 2025 auction is set to be held on November 24 and 25 in Jeddah. It will only be the second time the auctions will take place outside India. The IPL auctions were held in Dubai in 2024. 

The flourishing online gaming industry in confronted by several challenges. Apart from taxation issues, there are hardly any regulations that separate games of chance and games of skill. Many operators involved with popular games like cricket have taken advantage of this conundrum.

In his keynote address, Justice Sen took cricket as an example to explain the dilemma that has gripped people who engage in sporting activities that are legally vexed and terribly addictive.   

"If you have seen any of these auctions of cricketers, what is there? It is just a gamble really. You don't know how they (the players) are going to play at the end of it. It is just some information, some statistics which are given to you and you make these astronomical bids. If that is not gambling, what is it? That is permissible, but when you talk of some other activity, it is frowned upon," said Justice Sen.

More than 200 slots will be up for grabs in the upcoming IPL auctions. Seventy overseas players can be