Indians are spending roughly $27 million (about ₹2.3 lakh crore) a year in lotteries, but official ticket sales by states result in about ₹13 thousand crore – a fraction of the total.
On the other hand, the total expenditure on lotteries has again established a steady growth pace after the pandemic of 2020, and the expectations are to continue that trend for the next five years at a rate of 5.6%¹.
Let’s understand how that trend works and if those numbers are well distributed across the states.
How Much Do Indians Spend on Lotteries in Each State?
The estimation of ₹2.3 thousand crore found by research houses includes the estimation of every variety of lottery found in India, and even some forms of gambling that may not fit well in the category.
Therefore, we investigated each Indian government lottery and considered only state-authorized ticket sales, with no participation of informal activities in the calculation.
Kerala: Where People Spend the Most on Lotteries
The latest results from Kerala Lottery show an impressive growth in annual sales and a current expenditure of ₹12,529 crore (2023-24)².
While that sounds impressive, Kerala alone accounts for over 90% of what Indians spend on lotteries each year.
The state has shown a steady growth in sales since the COVID downturn, which had crashed the market to about ₹4,911 crore in the period of 2020-21.
On the other hand, as we are about to explain, other states are far from that performance and growth.
Punjab: Slowly Growing to Be a Lottery State
The Indian state of Punjab has seen a modest growth in the total expenditure in the official lottery sales, making about 3.4-fold more in the most recent period (2024-25) compared to ten years ago³.
That is something, but the totals are a very long way from Kerala numbers, as they sum up to ₹235 crore only. Still, we know that lottery jackpots fund social causes in India, so any money can do good to other people.
Maharashtra: Stuck in the Same Place
In Maharashtra, the total spent on lotteries each year has grown almost nothing within the last decade. Those results were about ₹134 crore in the period 2014-15 and are now at ₹139 crore, considering 2024-25³.
Expenditure of Indians on Lotteries in Other States
We have broken down in detail each state in order of the total spent by Indians on lotteries each year there. However, the next states have a very small revenue when it comes to lottery sales.
For example, Goa has a result of ₹36 crore in the most recent data³, which is the exact amount accrued by Mizoram in its first year as part of the providers of legal lottery in India (2022).
Other states have even less representative expenditure of locals in their official lotteries, such as Nagaland, with ₹8 crore.
Relevant Statistics of Indians’ Expenditure on Lotteries
- Kerala accounts for 90% of ticket expenditure in India
- Punjab has the best proportional growth in 10 years, with a 3.4x increase in ticket purchases
- The pandemic affected the sale of lottery tickets all around India
- Official and legal lottery drawings are a mere fraction of the total spent on lotteries each year
In Which Lottery Do Indians Spend the Most?
Draw-based lotteries are the most popular and the largest market for generating lottery revenue for Indian states in 2024, according to Grand View Horizon research¹.
It is ahead of the instant lottery, the one that you do not need to wait for the drawing to occur. If we were to guess the reason behind the preference, it most probably has to do with the much larger prizes available in draw-based lotteries.
What Are the Prognostics for the Future Years?
Although the expectations are of a regular growth of about 5% a year, this considers virtually all forms of gambling and not only the state lotteries. Besides, we know that it is possible to play online lottery in India, and that statistics do not appear in any research material.
Adding our perspective and experience in the market to it, India is likely to continue investing in expanding its state lotteries, including online. However, the market share is going to be slowly overcome by lottery betting sites, just like in other countries.
Still, we predict that Indians will spend even more on all forms of lotteries mentioned above. If you are one of them, make sure to do it legally and with responsibility.
FAQ
Kerala is the state where Indians spend the most on lotteries each year. It has dozens of times the sales volume of other states combined.
Unfortunately, we have no means of finding out how much Indians spend on online lotteries, especially international ones. However, it definitely has an important share in the total expenditure due to the high volume of participation in such sites.
Kerala schemes are popular and used as a reference by other states, which ends up attracting players who believe they have good odds of winning, including high payouts. Also, it has established a decent reputation for being honest.
Yes, the numbers show that the fall in lottery expenditures during the pandemic has been overcome and that the purchase of lottery tickets is growing every year.
