Islamabad:
In a tiny room overlooking a shanty town, four men work a dozen or so phones, struggling to keep up with calls from Pakistanis placing illegal bets on a cricket match in England.
The men are small-time gangsters, but sit on the lower rungs of something much larger: an underworld betting industry that spans the cricket world and has been implicated in a match-fixing scandal engulfing Pakistan's national team.
An Associated Press reporting crew was given a rare invitation by the bookmakers to see them at work for Tuesday's match.
The bookies insisted that their real names not be used or their faces photographed or filmed because their work is illegal, and claim millions of US dollars are spent annually to corrupt police and government officials so the gambling can continue.
The bookmakers said fixing in the sport, especially in the Pakistani team, had been common for years.
Such is the variety of bets available on every aspect of the game - not just the outcome - a player can perform to order and not necessarily affect the result.
Knowing what will happen in any match can be extremely valuable information to gamblers and bookies.
Test captain Salman Butt and bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir were suspended by the International Cricket Council last week for allegedly being involved in "spot fixing" after a British tabloid newspaper sting uncovered evidence that some players were being secretly paid to deliver no-balls at set times.
The News of the World newspaper reports of spot fixing are being investigated by British police and the ICC's anti-corruption unit, which was established in 2000.
One of the bookies, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said almost each match was fixed but added neither he nor his customers were aware of this information, suggesting scams on that scale went far higher up the syndicate.
Business was brisk on Tuesday night, when Pakistan's disastrous tour of England hit a new low as Shahid Afridi's depleted lineup was bowled out for 89 - its worst total ever in a Twenty20 international - and ultimately lost by six wickets.
"Today, the people bet on Pakistan and lost," said one of the bookies.
The odds are continuously squawked into the room via speakerphone from a man in Karachi, changing with every twist and turn of the game.
The bookies said the odds were set by the syndicate in London, and then relayed by telephone to Dubai, then Mumbai - all three cities are alleged to be major cities in the gambling underworld - before Karachi and then the rest of Pakistan.
They said they each took between 20 thousand and 30 thousand US dollars on a typical Twenty20 match from gamblers living in Lahore, a city of 8 million people.
Many people in Pakistan earn less than 100 US dollars a month, but the two bookies claim they make around 800 US dollars a night - the rest of the profits go to the syndicate.
Their books are open for every international cricket match as well as the domestic leagues in India and England.
Winnings and losses are squared a day or two after each match.
It's all cash transactions.
Gamblers either send somebody to pick up winnings, or the bookies send an intermediary to collect.
One of the bookies claimed that if people don't pay they will be assaulted.
The latest scandal has led to national shame in Pakistan, where the fortunes of the team had provided something positive amid militant attacks and this summer's devastating floods.