Guide

What is Satta Matka?

Satta Matka is a number-based betting game that grew out of 1940s–60s Bombay and is still followed by millions of people through daily results and charts. Here is where it came from, how a result is formed, and what the numbers on a matka chart mean.

Where Satta Matka Came From

Before Independence, a game called ankada jugar ("figures gambling") let people bet on the opening and closing rates of cotton, which were sent by teleprinter from the New York Cotton Exchange to the Bombay Cotton Exchange. When New York stopped that practice in 1961, the game needed a new source of random numbers. Organisers began writing numbers on slips, putting them in an earthen pot – a matka – and drawing them out. The name stuck.

Two operators turned it into a city-wide system:

• Kalyanji Bhagat, a grocer from Kutch working in Worli, started the Worli matka in 1962. The famous Kalyan market carries his name.
• Ratan Khatri set up his own matka in the early 1960s – remembered as the "Main Bazaar" or "Ratan" matka – and became the original "Matka King". He died in May 2020. Read the real Matka King story.

The trade peaked in the 1980s and early 1990s, when reports put monthly betting at more than ₹500 crore and counted over 2,000 bookies in Mumbai alone. A police crackdown in the mid-1990s pushed operators to other states, and the game gradually moved to phones, result websites and apps. Its history was dramatised in the 2026 Prime Video series Matka King, set in 1960s Bombay.

How a Result Is Formed

Each market declares twice a day. The first declaration is the open, the second the close. Each one is a three-digit number called a panna (or patti):

1. A panna is written with its digits in ascending order, with 0 counted as 10 – so 1, 4 and 0 become 140. There are exactly 220 valid pannas.
2. Add the panna's digits and keep the last digit. That single digit is the ank: 140 → 1 + 4 + 0 = 5.
3. The open ank and the close ank together form the two-digit jodi.

Every term used on this site is explained in the Satta Matka glossary. So the result 147-22-679 means: open panna 147 (1 + 4 + 7 = 12, ank 2), close panna 679 (6 + 7 + 9 = 22, ank 2), jodi 22. Between the two declarations the result is shown half-finished, as 147-2.

What the Markets Are

A "market" (or bazar) is simply an operator that declares results at fixed times. Kalyan (open 4:35 PM, close 6:35 PM, Monday to Saturday) and Main Bazar (10:00 PM and 12:10 AM, Monday to Friday) are the best known. Others include Milan Day and Night, Rajdhani Day and Night, Time Bazar, Sridevi, Madhur and Supreme. Our timetable lists every market we cover.

"Satta King" games such as Gali, Desawar, Faridabad and Ghaziabad are a different format: one two-digit number a day, with no pannas.

Matka Charts

Because results are declared every day, people keep them in charts. A jodi chart lists one week per row with the jodi for each day; a panel chart adds the open and close pannas. See how to read a matka chart, or browse all charts.

Legality and Risk

Betting on satta matka is illegal in most of India, and since 1 May 2026 the Online Gaming Act, 2025 also bans online money games, including matka apps, and their advertising. There is no legal protection if a bookie or app refuses to pay, and "fix game" sellers are always scams. Read Is Satta Matka legal? and our guide to fix-game scams. If gambling is hurting you or someone close to you, free help is available.