Matka King: Ratan Khatri, ‘pioneer of betting in India’, dies

Ratan Khatri, considered by many as among the pioneers of betting in India, has died. 88-year-old Khatri died on Saturday after a brief illness at his home in Mumbai Central area. Hailing from a Sindhi family, Khatri came to Mumbai from Karachi in Pakistan when he was a teenager during the partition in 1947. Famous for his 'Matka King' sobriquet, Khatri is credited with transforming matka, which is a form of gambling that originated in Mumbai in 1962 into India's biggest betting racket and established a nation-wide gambling network that lasted for decades under his control. Matka involved betting on the opening and closing rates of cotton transmitted from the New York Cotton Exchange. A tongue-in-cheek tribute to the ex-gambler came from a Twitter user who said the "hourly new announcements of government on lockdown norms reminded him of Ratan Khatri's matka of 70s!’