We have collected the most important and impressive facts about the Indian lottery nowadays. If you are looking to learn more about how lotteries work in our country or are simply curious about what has changed lately, this is your go-to source.
State Lotteries Maintain Individual Legal Framework
According to the Lotteries Regulation Act of 1988, each state government has the authorization and power to determine whether lotteries are legal or not and how they are going to be organized. There are certain rules to be followed in order to ensure fairness, but other than that, each state has control of its local lotteries – and if they are accepted at all.
That is why some states have government lotteries, like Arunachal Pradesh and Kerala, and others forbid all forms of lottery, including Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, in that group.
Online Lotteries Pay Much Bigger Jackpots Compared to State Lotteries
If we take a look at the highest-paying Indian state lotteries, we have about ₹1 to ₹2 crore for daily lotteries and up to ₹25 crore in the special and rare bumper drawings as the biggest possible jackpots. Also, you cannot play those special bumper draws in our Kerala lottery chart or from Goa from another state.
When we look at online lotteries, there are dozens of alternatives with much bigger starting jackpots that can get tens or hundreds of times bigger.
We do not even need to look at absurd examples like Powerball and Mega Millions, with their US$ 20,000,000 jackpots that already reached the billion mark. Let’s take a look at Lotto 6/49 and Euromillions instead.
Their starting jackpot is the equivalent of ₹30 Crore and ₹140 Crore, respectively. A secondary prize in Euromillions is just as big as the jackpot of a daily lottery in Goa or twice as high as Maharashtra’s best jackpot.
Those are just two examples, while you can find 60+ on websites like theLotter. As long as your state does not forbid online lotteries, you will find much better prizes with balanced and fair odds.
The Lottery Has an Important Contribution to State Revenue
The money paid out as lottery prizes is only a fraction of the total that is collected through lottery sales. That simply is how lotteries work, as their main intent is always to generate income for the state that organizes them. However, in the case of India, there is also the GST (Goods and Services Tax) that is applied to ticket sales.
Therefore, there is the collection from the amount that is not paid as prize or to cover operational fees added by taxes paid by lottery sellers. That last contribution alone was responsible for Rs 3,900 crore in revenue in nine of the 13 states that legalized the lottery.
Among the states that most benefit from lotteries, Kerala calls attention to its revenue. In fact, according to data from its official website, the year 2019-20 resulted in a lottery revenue of 9972.97 crore, with the highest profit so far, at 1,763.69 crore.
Kerala Is the Most Successful State Lottery in India
Kerala is not only the most successful state lottery these days but also a pioneer that inspired other states to follow its steps. Aside from the long history, the history of lottery winners who have changed their lives thanks to the Kerala Lotteries helps maintain it in people’s fantasies.
Also, the large number of rewarding bumper drawings, which are special lotteries, is also quite tempting. With dozens of thousands of authorized sellers across the state, there is always a place where people can try their luck.
Maintenance of Ethical Debates on the Existence of Lotteries
Even over two decades after the allowance for certain states to determine their own lottery rules, there are conflicting ideas connected to lotteries in each region. For example, the state of Kerala, which we just mentioned as the most popular lottery in India, has increasing debates on the impacts of lottery in the state.
That debate is not exclusive to India, and there is always a line of thought that condemns lotteries due to religious, economic, or social reasons. For example, there is an ongoing debate on whether the lottery is allowed in Hinduism or not. We have shown the positive economic results of the lottery above, and that factor is in favour of lotteries.
While lottery addiction is a real problem anywhere, the prevalence of illegal forms of gambling and the appearance of fake schemes despite prohibition indicates that forbidding is not the solution and might only eliminate the positive aspect of lotteries.
The Lottery Is Not as Easy as You May Think
Even among the easiest lotteries that we have compiled, your odds of winning are still challenging because there is a considerably high prize waiting for you. Since there is no such thing as guaranteeing a lottery prize and the only way to increase your chances of winning the lottery is through more tickets, you are subject to those odds.
For example, if we take Eurojackpot, there is a prize of millions but odds of 1 in over 95 million possibilities. That is tough, but the Jeeto Lotto has a very decent prize of ₹34.7 Lakh with odds of 1 in 2.14 million. The lower the prize, the easier the odds, as in any other form of gambling.
If odds of 1 in 2,778 sound tempting, that is because the Jhatka Matka game has a small jackpot of ₹120,000. Therefore, if you want a life-changing prize, or at least enough to pay debts and enjoy life, you are going to face tough odds.
Global Online Lottery Market to Reach $23.5 Billion by 2030
While the year 2022 was already impressive at the estimated mark of US$12.1 billion for the global online lottery market, that is nothing compared to roughly US$23.5 billion by 2030, as estimated by Researchandmarkets.com.
Considering the relevance of our population in any global trend and the fact that online lottery is legal in many Indian states, it is clear that we are playing a major role in it. As a result, there are good chances that we will be seeing improvements in the services offered to us in India.
Online Lottery Might Soon Be Legalized Countrywide
Another factor that corroborates the estimation of a growing online lottery market in our country is the fact that the gambling market is expanding overall in India. Despite current prejudice on lotteries existing in some states, there are no arguments against improving revenue.
The most probable scenario is that Indian states will start to offer their own lotteries online, and that should attract the attention of other regions that do not currently offer lottery services. Soon, one of the favourite hobbies of Indians, which is playing the lottery online, will be accessible and regulated within more states.
Jackpot of ₹250 Crore Remains the Record for Indian Players
The biggest lottery prize ever won by an Indian lottery player was the equivalent of ₹250 Crore, or $30.5 million dollars, won by Sandeep “Sunny” Singh in October 2012. As a regular lottery player, he bought a $6 quick pick that contained all the winning numbers.
Since then, no other Indian or person with a direct relation with our country has won a bigger prize, at least that we know of through the media.
Most Indians Can Play Online Lotteries From Other Countries
With the exception of a few Indian states in which either all forms of lotteries or, specifically, the online lottery is forbidden, the other territories can enjoy online lotteries. Namely found in our footer disclaimer, they are Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, and Punjab.
Therefore, as an Indian, you can still enjoy dozens of lotteries from other countries with the optimized jackpots we already talked about, as long as you do not live in one of these four states. All that you need is a platform where you can either purchase real tickets or bet on lotteries while depositing and withdrawing to your account in India.
AR/VR Integration May Bring Immersive Drawings
The promise of a fluid and interactive metaverse plus the reality brought by AR and VR devices can go really well with the lottery, as per an analysis by the TI company Adesso. At first thought, we could think of people seeing lottery drawings as if they were in the same room, which would be extraordinary compared to watching them live on YouTube.
However, that is for the taste of very few people and not even close to the full potential of AR and VR integration with lotteries. Through a more complex implementation, each participant could be there with their scanned ticket or scratchcard and see their prizes live when they confirm their winnings number.
Imagine being at the comfort of your house and seeing a car prize or roughly ₹2 crore in front of you, knowing that it could soon be yours. Let’s hope there will be enough interest from lottery companies and Indian states to implement those future changes.
Cross-Border Partnerships to Open Up New Markets
The lottery is really profitable for every state that offers it, as we have seen in another fact in this list. However, players often get interested in specific schemes offered in another state or even internationally. Given that state lotteries lose revenue when their locals play through an online lottery site from abroad, there are two possible natural moves.
One of them is to forbid online lottery, which some states did, and that may not please players or increase the revenue significantly. Based on our own experience and how things have evolved in lottery markets, it is natural to expect a cross-border partnership from a global perspective.
It would not be something unseen, as some states in the United States, where there are also different rules in each territory, already collaborated with international lottery sites. That is the case of Texas and Oregon, which partnered with the Jackpocket app and theLotter. While that does not happen and eases costs and conditions for us, we may continue to play on our favorite sites nevertheless.
AI and Player Behavior: Personalized Offers and Actions
Using social media or mobile apps shows us how they tend to adapt to what we see when navigating on them. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that specialized lottery services will soon adapt their offers and campaigns to our preferences. For example, since I’m a big Powerball player, I might get a free ticket or discounts for that specific game now and then.
That already happens in some of the online lottery sites that we tested and recommended. All it takes is to sign up for the newsletter and make sure to keep an eye on promotions. As an improvement, the use of AI in the most varied services might also result in better-optimized offers, but that is still to be seen.
