Ban on lottery has caused a loss of `6,000 crore to state exchequer

Bengaluru: The state is losing Rs 6000 crores per annum due to proliferation of online gambling and e - lottery, Karnataka state retail lottery merchants association President C Ramakrishna said in Bangalore.

Speaking to the media, Karnataka state retail lottery merchants association President C Ramakrishna said it is ridiculous to ban paper lottery in the age of Online gambling and E - Lottery. "The neighbouring Kerala state is getting a revenue of Rs 6000 crores by efficient regulation and monitoring of lottery system," Ramakrishna added.

He urged the state government to emulate Kerala model of managing the lottery system in the interest of state exchequer as well as small and retail lottery agents."Our government should look into the humanitarian angle in this issue," Ramakrishna added.

In his view, the income generated out of lottery sales can be utilized for social welfare schemes including medical facilities to the elderly people. "Moreover, if the government brings in a transparent and fair lottery system, we can curb illegal gambling and the menace of E - Lottery," Ramakrishna explained.

He said the wholesale lottery agents can buy all the printed lottery tickets by paying the entire amount. The lottery tickets can also carry advertisement material cleared by the government. In this system, the government will be in a win-win situation. Karnataka State Government has failed to implement the SC Verdict on re-introducing the Lottery Program. On 23 March 2022, the Supreme Court thoughtfully proceeded with the verdict in favor of Karnataka State and Kerala State ordering the sale of lottery tickets from outside these states and the Karnataka State Government has failed to adhere to the SC verdict. In the other state governments-run lottery trade, the lottery traders have not submitted the retailers' income to the finance department from 7 other states.

In relation to this, the finance department in the right to information has clearly stated that no outside-the-state lottery retailers have submitted their retail documents to the finance department. In addition to this, we met the Governor of the state of Karnataka and demanded that he investigate allowing us to trade in the lottery tickets and constituting a Ministry for Lottery and a Department for Lottery. We have also made our plea to the Karnataka Government regarding the same and despite numerous notices to them, they have turned a deaf ear towards the whole issue.

These failures and apologies have been brought to us in various forms by the state government and hence we decided to take up this matter with the High Court of Karnataka and the result has remained the same. They have successfully held the High Court decision on the Online gaming and gambling act, and they continue to harass the retailers in a similar way. Despite so much effort, the Karnataka State Government has just been playing with excuses every time we reach out to them. Relating to this plea of restarting the lottery program in the Karnataka State, we met the Governor on September 12, 2022 and submitted a memorandum with him to restart the retailing of traditional lottery tickets in the state. The Governor wrote a letter to the state government dated September 26, 2022 to take necessary steps in re-introducing the program while it employed numerous people and took the proper authenticity from the M.S.I.L agents from M.S.I.L and restarted the lottery program.

Ramakrishna said, "On January 1, 2023, we met the respected Chief Minister, to honour our plea and to acknowledge our memorandum in bringing the lottery retail back in action by the Karnataka State government and by other state-run lottery systems. With this lottery program, the bordering states such as Kerala, Goa, and Maharashtra are victims of such maligning activities which are illegal, and this can be curbed. In addition, the Mangalmukhis (the third gender) who dominate most of the roads and the signals begging for alms are promised employment with this scheme. This will also make them self-reliant."