After strenuous research on the most common lottery myths in India that are haunting our fellow players, we developed a complete guide to the truth. With our help, you will accompany the debunking of myths that will never again prevent you from playing or winning lotteries!
It Is Not Legal to Play Online Lottery From India
The truth: There are only four states that explicitly forbid playing the lottery online, and they are Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, and Punjab. Aside from not having lotteries in its territory, a state’s law must specify online operations from abroad or lotteries overall as illegal for them to be forbidden. That is thanks to The Lotteries (Regulation) Act, 1998. For example, even though Punjab has legalized lotteries, it forbids online playing in its legislation.
Tripura, on the other hand, does not have any legal or authorized government lottery in its state. Thanks to the fact that the Tripura Gambling Act, 1926 is too old, it does not ban online lotteries that are not operated from India. That is also the same case in many other states.
Therefore, it is legal to play online lottery in most Indian states. That is one of the most interesting lottery facts in India and the first myth to be debunked here.
No One Really Wins the Lottery
The truth: The odds of winning the lottery are really challenging, which is why we can never know someone who has won it in our entire life. However, when you play a lottery that is offered either by the government or regulated online lottery sites, people are always winning. In fact, most lotteries reveal at least some details about the winners. LottoSmile is one of those.
Credit: LottoSmile
The shortest the pool of numbers and the smaller the risk, the higher your chances of winning the lottery. On the other hand, life-changing prizes, especially from international lotteries that pay millions of dollars and euros, are one chance in several millions. It is difficult, but definitely not impossible, and you can check winners on the lotteries’ results page.
You Always Need to Collect Lottery Winnings in Person
The truth: When you play a local lottery with a paper ticket or purchase online tickets via a lottery agent, you do need to claim your winnings in person. In the second scenario, that is only for prizes above around ₹200,000. On the other hand, many Indian players prefer to play on lottery betting sites and escape from that obligation!
Credit: Lottofy
The advantage of lottery betting sites like Lottofy is that you bet on the results. There is no real participation in the official lottery but rather prizes covered by their insurance. As a result, you receive the winnings directly on your account.
Players Pay Commissions on All Online Lottery Sites
The truth: That myth that makes lottery players afraid of playing on lottery sites is not correct. In fact, most of the websites that we have reviewed and brought here charge no commission on your winnings. You receive everything after taxes, and not a single penny is discounted to fund the lottery site. The earnings they want are already included in the ticket price.
Credit: LottoSmile
Big Jackpots Mean Harder Lotteries
The truth: Most lotteries have a progressive jackpot prize that rolls over every drawing that there is no winner. That is how a $100,000 prize can become a $5 million jackpot in a matter of a couple of months. If we compare the odds of that lottery with one that has a fixed or starting jackpot of the same $5 million, it is going to be much easier.
Of course, there are really challenging lotteries like Powerball and Mega Millions with their starting jackpot of $20 million. However, we have seen the record jackpot go beyond $2 billion dollars (~ ₹16,676 crore) not a long time ago. Therefore, the catch is to keep an eye on the easiest lotteries and play more tickets when their jackpots are bigger.
You Must Reveal Your Identity If You Win the Lottery
The truth: It is true that keeping anonymity in India by winning big prizes can be difficult, especially when you have to claim the prize in person. Fortunately, playing lotteries from abroad can spare you from that problem. After all, even if you need your data to be disclosed in another country, not a single relevant countryman will have that figured out.
Credit: LottoSmile
If you want to stay anonymous, it is highly recommended to play online through international lottery sites. Besides having access to much better lotteries, you won’t have to reveal your identity to other people in India or abroad.
Nobody Can Win the Lottery Twice
The truth: Lightning strikes the same place twice, or even more, despite the difficult odds. The same goes for the lottery, as nobody is forbidden from playing after winning the lottery or having the conditions altered in any way. Take that for a fact, and if you hopefully win the lottery but decide you still want more prizes or a better one, keep trying!
Source: edition.cnn.com
Indian Lotteries Are Better Than International Lotteries
The truth: If we define that what makes a lottery better than others are the odds and prizes, the Indian lotteries are far behind American and European lotteries. Of course, you can win ₹1 crore prizes in the Kerala Lottery results, with tickets costing only ₹50, or even less if you go for smaller prizes. Most games do not pay that much, though.
Besides, even though tickets cost more in international lotteries, the prizes tend to be much higher. By agreeing that the purpose of playing the lottery is to win enough to have our lives changed, going for the bigger prizes is the way to go. Therefore, we conclude that several of the international lotteries are better than Indian lotteries – especially because you might live in a state where there is none or too few.
It Is Impossible to Verify the Legitimacy of Lotteries
The truth: The only lotteries that you cannot verify and be sure of their legitimacy are the scam ones like the Chetak Lottery or the fake Bhagyalakshmi Lottery. All other lottery sites that you can use to play from India and are safe can be verified. In fact, that is exactly how we carry out our reviews to make sure that you can play them and have real winning chances.
Credit: Lottofy
Some good examples are awards from reputable organizations, like SBC and EGR, as shown below. Also, checking if there is a registered and valid company behind the lottery, as well as an active operating license, is a must before playing on any lottery site.
Playing the Same Numbers Improve Your Odds
The truth: Every drawing is a completely separate event from any number of predecessor drawings. Therefore, imagine you have just played any combination whatsoever of your favorite or horoscope numbers, and your odds are 1 in 13,983,816 in Lotto 6/49. If you keep playing them, your odds will also be 1 in 13,983,816 for every single drawing.
You cannot improve your lottery winning chances by repeating the same numbers every drawing. I know you have heard before that it will come out at some point, but that is not necessarily true as any combination can be drawn an infinite number of times. Still, there is nothing wrong in believing in a combination that brings you luck, just understand that you won’t be improving your odds any further.
Lottery Winners Always End Up Losing Their Money
The truth: There are real stories of lottery winners who continued to be rich and even increased their patrimony. Most of them try to keep out of the spotlight, not to mention those who stay anonymous. Besides, it is a simple matter of logic. If you do not like the idea of becoming rich and losing everything, you need guidance.
It does not matter if you win ₹1 lakh or ₹10 crore, you can make more money or lose it all either way. Making good decisions on how to invest and spend the money is how lottery winners, businessmen, entrepreneurs, and everyone else who manage to make a large sum stay rich.
You Need to Pay a Fee If You Win the Lottery
The truth: Instead of a lottery winner fee, you owe the government the lottery tax, and that goes for both the Indian government and the lottery office from the country where the lottery is based. For example, if you win SuperEnalotto, the prize will be deposited to you minus the 20% Italian lottery tax. Then, by receiving it, you need to accrue our local taxes.
Therefore, there is not a fee applied to lottery winnings, but rather a tax that is used to direct the money to education, health, and other governmental investments.
Hot Numbers Help You Predict Lottery Drawings
The truth: For the same reason that we explained the lottery myth that you could improve your odds by repeating numbers, you cannot get a better chance using “hot numbers”. Hot numbers basically are the numbers that have come out more often in the latest drawings, and how far you look into the statistics vary according to the method.
Given that every drawing is entirely random and independent, it does not matter if “30” or “7” came out three times more often in the past. They will have just the exact same chances of being drawn as any number, including the “cold” ones. Therefore, you can have fun exploring that theory from lottery books, but simple math and the lotteries’ RNG system determine you are not improving your odds.
The Lottery in India Is Rigged
The truth: When it comes to Indian lotteries, the official lotteries conducted by the state governments are not rigged. They have either automatic or manual drawing machines based on random drawings that cannot favor anyone. Besides, you are free to pick whichever numbers you prefer, which means that you have a chance of winning regardless of the drawn numbers.
Invest Everything You Win At Once
The truth: There are two good reasons not to give a destination to all of your lottery money at once. The first one is that no opportunity is too good to justify putting all your eggs in a single basket. Risks are always involved, and you would reduce your chances of still being rich in the long term.
Secondly, financial planning takes time and slow allocation of money. That line of thought not only reduces risk but may guarantee that you can always have a source of revenue that has liquidity.
You Do Not Need to Work Hard Anymore After Winning
The truth: Losing the money is not the only possibility that could lead a lottery winner to an unhappy ending. Mental health is a very important matter, and it goes beyond what material happiness can provide. If you were lucky enough not to have to work in your old employment or company again, thinking that you should only relax for the rest of your life is not true or healthy.
You might not need to be an employee ever again, but finding true passions is especially important. There is a lot more than just living in luxury to be happy. That is part of why lottery winners tend to share with their closest ones instead of spending on their own, like paying for the college of their nephews or buying the house their parents always wanted. I quote Christopher McCandless: “Happiness is only real, when shared.”
Back to the “work” part, it could be dedicating hours of your day or week to a new hobby or starting a business. Unless you are in your late 70s, considering current life expectancy, spending the rest of your days spending on being comfortable can not only extinguish the prize but make life meaningless.
Psychics Can Predict Lottery Numbers
The truth: This is something most lottery players wish they were told before spending their money on psychics or any similar form of promise. Anyone who possesses the secret to winning the lottery and predicting numbers will use it to become rich. Instead, they supposedly offer their services for a very reasonable fee to make you become a millionaire.
Obviously, none of those lottery prediction software or psychic services actually work. Even lottery strategies can only make playing the lottery fun, as the numbers are still random and unpredictable. Knowing that, never spend a single penny on people who claim that they can predict or teach you to predict lottery numbers.
Now you have enough knowledge to play the lottery with responsibility and will no longer believe in any of those myths found on the internet, books, and magazines in India.
