Feature
Two killed in Denmark shootings
Copenhagen: At least two people were killed and five police personnel were injured in separate shooting attacks in Denmark’s capital Copenhagen since Saturday evening, media reported Sunday.
In the first attack Saturday evening, one person was killed and three police officers injured when gunmen opened fire at a meeting on blasphemy at a cultural centre, where French Ambassador to Denmark Francois Zimeray and Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, who had courted controversy for his portrayals of the Prophet Mohammed, were present.
The second attack took place early Sunday near Copenhagen’s main synagogue, where one person was killed by gunshot wounds to the head and two policemen were injured, The Copenhagen Post reported.
Police said that a suspect fled the scene wearing black pants and shoes and a light grey jacket.
Police said that it is still too early to determine whether the synagogue shooting is related to Saturday’s attack on the meeting on “Art, Blasphemy and Freedom of Expression”.
Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt said that it was a terrorist strike after the first attack Saturday and her country would never bow to violence.
“All resources will be used to find (those responsible) and bring them before a judge,” she added.
“We have some difficult days ahead,” the prime minister said.
The White House has also denounced the deadly shooting as “deplorable”, pledging help needed for investigation into the double attack.
“The US condemns today’s deplorable shooting in Copenhagen,” National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said.
“We have been in close contact with our Danish counterparts and stand ready to lend any assistance necessary to the investigation,” she added.
The 68-year-old cartoonist Vilks has been under police protection since August 2007, when he published a caricature of the Prophet Mohammad in Swedish newspaper Nerikes Allehanda.
Attacks on Vilks followed and two brothers were sentenced to prison terms in 2010 for trying to burn down the cartoonist’s house in Sweden.
Vilks was one of the nine faces on a “Most Wanted” graphic published by Al Qaeda’s Inspire magazine for “crimes against Islam”, as was the former editor of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, Stephane “Charb” Charbonnier, who was killed in a terrorist attack on his Paris office last month.
The Copenhagen attacks do have resonance with the attack on the office of Charlie Hebdo, in which two Islamist gunmen killed 12 people, purportedly to avenge the Prophet Muhammad.
The perpetrators behind the two incidents in Copenhagen are still at large.
The State Scores Extra High on Gaming-Friendly Industry Index
Meghalaya scored 92.85 out of 100 possible points in a Gaming Industry Index and proved to be India’s most gaming-friendly state following its recent profound legislation changes over the field allowing land-based and online gaming, including games of chance, under a licensing regime.
The index by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) uses a scale of 0 to 100 to measure the level of legalisation on gambling and betting achieved by a state based on the scores over a set of seven different games – lottery, horse racing, betting on sports, poker, rummy, casino and fantasy sports
Starting from February last year, Meghalaya became the third state in India’s northeast to legalise gambling and betting after Sikkim and Nagaland. After consultations with the UKIBC, the state proceeded with the adoption of the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 and the nullification of the Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act, 1970. Subsequently in December, the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021 were notified and came into force.
All for the Tourists
The move to legalise and license various forms of offline and online betting and gambling in Meghalaya is aimed at boosting tourism and creating jobs, and altogether raising taxation revenues for the northeastern state. At the same time, the opportunities to bet and gamble legally will be reserved only for tourists and visitors.
“We came out with a Gaming Act and subsequently framed the Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021. The government will accordingly issue licenses to operate games of skill and chance, both online and offline,” said James P. K. Sangma, Meghalaya State Law and Taxation Minister speaking in the capital city of Shillong. “But the legalized gambling and gaming will only be for tourists and not residents of Meghalaya,” he continued.
To be allowed to play, tourists and people visiting the state for work or business purposes will have to prove their non-resident status by presenting appropriate documents, in a process similar to a bank KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure.
Meghalaya Reaches Out to a Vast Market
With 140 millions of people in India estimated to bet regularly on sports, and a total of 370 million desi bettors around prominent sporting events, as per data from one of the latest reports by Esse N Videri, Meghalaya is set to reach out and take a piece of a vast market.
Estimates on the financial value of India’s sports betting market, combined across all types of offline channels and online sports and cricket predictions and betting platforms, speak about amounts between $130 and $150 billion (roughly between ₹9.7 and ₹11.5 lakh crore).
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Delhi are shown to deliver the highest number of bettors and Meghalaya can count on substantial tourists flow from their betting circles. The sports betting communities of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are also not to be underestimated.
Among the sports, cricket is most popular, registering 68 percent of the total bet count analyzed by Esse N Videri. Football takes second position with 11 percent of the bets, followed by betting on FIFA at 7 percent and on eCricket at 5 percent. The last position in the Top 5 of popular sports for betting in India is taken by tennis with 3 percent of the bet count.
Local Citizens will Still have Their Teer Betting
Meghalaya residents will still be permitted to participate in teer betting over arrow-shooting results. Teer is a traditional method of gambling, somewhat similar to a lottery draw, and held under the rules of the Meghalaya Regulation of the Game of Arrow Shooting and the Sale of Teer Tickets Act, 2018.
Teer includes bettors wagering on the number of arrows that reach the target which is placed about 50 meters away from a team of 20 archers positioned in a semicircle.
The archers shoot volleys of arrows at the target for ten minutes, and players place their bets choosing a number between 0 and 99 trying to guess the last two digits of the number of arrows that successfully pierce the target.
If, for example, the number of hits is 256, anyone who has bet on 56 wins an amount eight times bigger than their wager.
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