One may hear about betting through playing cards of “El Shiddeh”, the lottery, TV contests, or electronic games, but have you ever heard of betting on “fighting roosters”? 

It is a phenomenon that has spread recently among poultry breeders in Syria, based on breeding roosters designated for fighting arenas. They used to be bred in some areas of the countryside of Damascus such as Saydnaya, Duma and others. The purpose at that time was to mix its meat with lamb or veal meat, as it is similar to it, and even with Rhode Island Red rooster meat.

However, it is now bred as individual cases in some Syrian areas, and sold for the purpose of using it in the wrestling field, but it is prohibited according to Syrian law. 

The source of these roosters controls their price, so the sources vary between the well-known strong Syrian rooster, the fast Austrian, the rough Indian, and the German one which is intermediate between these breeds.

A breeding rooster costs the breeder an amount ranging between 250 to 300 thousand Syrian pounds between food and vaccines, and it is sold at an average price ranging between 1.5 to 2 million Syrian pounds, some even reach a price of 4 million pounds. 

These types of roosters do not differ from their counterparts in anything, except that they receive special care and are assigned a diet based on legumes, and are trained to strengthen their aggressive instinct only.

In this context, breeding this type for sale in Syria is permitted, and the reason for its high price is its entry into the conflict and betting on it by fans. As such, most breeders breed it for trade and sale, and it may be exported to foreign countries such as Iraq and others. 

For its part, the law criminalizes this type of betting because it falls under the umbrella of "gambling," as it is considered a crime punishable by the Syrian legislator.