Legal Online Lottery in India – Famous Winners
You must often wonder about the winners of legal online lottery in India who transformed from rags to riches overnight. There are several winning stories that will inspire you to try your luck. We have picked three exceptional stories of Indian citizens who owe a lot to lady luck for transforming their lives.
1. Mofijul Rahima Sheikh
Mofijul Rahima Sheikh was just a 22 year old when he left West Bengal to find a job in the construction industry in Kerala. He used his salary of fifty rupees on the very first day of his job as a construction worker to purchase a lottery ticket. He rushed to the nearest police station soon after realizing that he won $150,000 prize money. He spent two days at the police station guarding his ticket. He returned to his town in West Bengal joyfully once he got the money deposited into his bank. All it took for him was a journey to transform his life entirely.
2. Hari Krishnan V Nair
Originally from Kerala, Hari Krishnan was just a 42-year old business development manager when he won the biggest jackpot ever in Abu Dhabi in 2018. He left his home town in Kerala to work for a firm based in Dubai. He made it big in this third attempt and this changed his life entirely by playing legal online lottery in India.
3. Nirmal Dhamodarasamy
A 23-year old student traveled all the way to Chicago to secure a master’s degree in industrial engineering from the University of Illinois. Seldom did he knew that his life was about to take a massive turn. He used an online lottery service offered in Illinois to purchase Powerball subscription. He did not have to wait for long as he hit a massive jackpot of $1 million on the 6th of February, 2016.
The History Of Indian Lottery System
The term lottery is not a new concept for the Indian subcontinent. You can look into traditional stories for finding a reference to instances if gambling and lotteries. One such example can be traced to the game of ‘Pasa’ from the popular Hindu scripture Mahabharata. The game dates back to the time before Indus Valley Civilization flourished in the Indian subcontinent. The game has also been mentioned in the book Kadambari written by famous prose writer Banabhatta. Pasa was believed to be a game of skill, unlike most of the modern-day lotteries that can be won by sheer luck. There were just a limited few who mastered the art of Pasa and knew how to excel at it.
Mahabharata- The Dice Game
The modern-day gambling was introduced by the British to India. The games basically involved dog and horse races. Other animals were also used for gambling such as elephant races and cockfighting. These games are illegal today in the country. However, there are a few states that permit horse races. The lottery system is prevalent in certain states. Lotteries have transformed more into a government-based system. The states of Sikkim and Kerala have their own lottery system which has been approved to be legal.
During 1984, the game of lottery was introduced in Calcutta at a private event. The event was hosted for just a section of society and outsiders were not allowed to take part in it. There is no detailed information available about the taxes levied on the winnings earlier. There are, however, the records of the simplified version of the lottery game being introduced by Mr. Ratan Lal Chetteri from Bombay.
The government of Madras was the first government to favor the lottery system. It was introduced initially for generating funds for welfare and construction activities. It was referred to as the provincial lottery. The revenue generated was used for the construction and maintenance of the Rippon building, the Victoria Hall, various movie theatres, and government museums. With this success story, several other governments launched this initiative. India soon witnessed a lottery trend just like other nations. It was in the year 1968, the government of Kerala organized the first-ever lottery event ever run by any state in India. This triggered interest in the residents. The success of the Kerala lottery system awakened other state governments. Several union territories started following the model for various purposes.
Lotteries became a great source of revenue and business for state governments. They organized annual, monthly, and weekly jackpot events. This molded the institutionalized structure in a significant manner. On-site and online sales of lotteries began in recent years. There are numerous industries that still thrive on the lottery system
Modification In Gambling Laws In India
Although lotteries became a great source of revenue for state governments, the Supreme Court of India modified various laws on gambling in India. This allowed governments to ban the sale of legal online lottery in India. This decision followed after a case was filed by the All Kerala Lottery Dealers Association when they faced a setback because of the spike in the sale of online lotteries. The three-judge court refused to acknowledge the sale of the lottery as a fundamental right of the citizen of India. They unanimously upheld the decision to ban the sale of lotteries.
The judgment came after the realization of the temptation and addiction of lower-income families over the sale of instant families. This addiction proved out to be harmful to such families surviving on daily wages. Although a strong set of guidelines has been issued by the government, there is no complete control over the risks faced by families when their entire savings and income is invested in purchasing an online lottery in India by one of their family members. The scams still continue, and harshest consequences are experienced by the poorest families. There have been many instances when certain families became victims of non-authorized retailers and scammers.
The dream of making quick money and the lure of experiencing life-changing events still push people to invest in lottery tickets quite often. The consequences are faced by the poor and not by the rich. Lottery addiction makes their life miserable. Based on laws reformed in 2015, each state has its own right to exercise the sale of on-site and online lotteries. Most of the states have officially banned lottery systems. However, it is still in operation in states like Sikkim and Kerala.
Current Lottery Laws In India
Lotteries are governed under the Lotteries Regulations Act of 1998. As mentioned earlier, both the state and union territories can set their own laws for controlling state-run lotteries. They can either choose to ban it entirely or function it by setting its own rules. No national ban has been imposed in India over the lottery system. Currently, the sale of lottery tickets is legal in thirteen states in India. These states are Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Kerala, Manipur, Goa, Meghalaya, Maharashtra, Arunachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Punjab, and West Bengal.
The most popular lottery system is run in the states of Sikkim, Maharashtra, Nagaland, Kerala, and Mizoram. The states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were once popular hubs for the sale of lottery tickets. However, now both states have barred the lottery system entirely. This is because of the concerns raised over the severe consequences on families of addicts. Although the lottery system proved to be a great source of revenue for state governments, many discontinued the sales and banned the system entirely for the welfare of the residents.
