Matka Gambling or Satta is a type of lottery which at first involved betting on the opening and closing rates of cotton transmitted from the New York Cotton Trade. It begins from before the time of the India Independence when it was formally known as Ankada Jugar ("figures gambling"). In the 1960s, Matka was supplanted with different methods of creating arbitrary numbers, which pulling slips from a large earthenware pot known as a matka or managing playing cards were also included. Matka betting is illicit in India.

Originally in the form of the game, betting would happen on the opening and closing rates of cotton as transmitted to the Bombay Cotton Trade from the New York Cotton Trade, through teleprinters.
In 1961, the New York Cotton Trade ceased the method, which made the punters search for new approaches to keep the matka business alive. Rattan Khatri came up with the idea of announcing the opening and closing rates of excellent products. Numbers would be composed small paper and put into a matka, a large earthen pitcher. An individual will then draw a chit and announce the lucky numbers. As the year goes, the method changed, with the goal that three numbers were being drawn from a pack of playing cards, yet maintaining the name "matka."
In 1962, Kalyanji Bhagat began the Worli matka. Rattan Khatri presented the New Worli matka in 1964, with slight alterations to the standards of the game. Kalyanji Bhagat's matka worked for all days of the week, while Rattan Khatri's matka worked just five days weekly, which is from Monday to Friday.
As at the period textile mills in Mumbai were flourishing, most of the workers in the factory played matka, bringing about bookies opening their shops in and around the factory areas, predominantly situated in Central Mumbai. Central Mumbai turned into the heart of the matka business in Mumbai.
The decades of the 1980s and 90s witnessed the matka business to its top. Betting amounts which is more than Rs. 500 crore would be paid monthly. The Mumbai police's heavy crackdown on the matka caves constrained merchants to move their base to the city's outskirts. A considerable lot of them moved to Gujarat, Rajasthan and different states. Having no primary source of betting in the city, the punters got pulled into various sources of gambling like online and zhatpat lotteries. Meanwhile, the affluent punters started to examine cricket matches betting.
In 1995 there were more than 2,000 major and medium-time bookies in the city and neighboring towns, yet from that point onward the numbers have declined significantly to under 300. Recently the average month to month turnover has stayed around Rs. 100 crore. The present-day matka business is centered on Maharashtra

Someone who has won loads of cash from matka gambling is called a "Matka King."

Kalyanji Bhagat was a born farmer in the Ratadia village, Ganes Wala in Kutch, Gujarat Kalyanji's family name was Gala and the name Bhagat, an alteration of that, was a title given to their family by the Ruler of Kutch for their religiousness. He landed as a vagrant in Bombay in 1941 and at first did odd occupations like masala ferriwala (spice dealer) to dealing with a supermarket. In the 1960s, when Kalyanji Bhagat was running a grocery in Worli, he pioneered matka gambling by tolerating bets based on the opening and closing rates of cotton exchanged on the New York wholesale market. He used to work from the compound of his building Vinod Mahal, in Worli.

On June 11, 2008, a truck slammed into a Mahindra Scorpio in which Suresh Bhagat and six others, including his legal advisor and protectors were traveling, killing every one of them. They were coming back from an Alibaug court, where the hearing of a 1998 opiates case was carried out. As the police investigate, it was noticed that Hitesh Bhagat (Suresh Bhagat's child) and his mom Jaya Bhagat had incubated the plot to murder Suresh Bhagat. Hitesh and nine others, including Jaya, were captured and were tried under the stringent demonstration of Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act and afterward sentenced.

Rattan Khatri, popularly known as the Matka Ruler controlled a national illicit gambling system with universal associations which included a few lakh punters and dealt crores of rupees between 1960s and mid-1990s. Khatri's matka begun in the bustling business range of Dhanji street in Mumbadevi where idlers used to bet on the day by day trickle of the fluctuating cotton rates from the New York market. Continuously, it turned into a major betting center as the quantum of wagers and betters expanded. Because of a row over a winning number adding to the New York market's five-day week plan, addicted betters started to look for options. In light of the solicitations of his friends, Khatri began his syndicate and started drawing three cards to determine the day's number. Khatri's betting was seen to be more real as the cards were apparently opened before the benefactor. During the crisis in India, Khatri was imprisoned and served 19 months behind bars. He has resigned from the gambling business and lives close to Tardeo; notwithstanding, despite everything he visits the Mahalaxmi Racecourse to bet on his favorite horse.