Maharashtra government mulling to start online lottery system

The Maharashtra government has prepared a proposal to shift from paper to online lottery in order to earn more revenue, an official said.
Maharashtra principal secretary (planning) Vijay Kumar Gautam said the state government is studying the lottery model of Kerala, which earns a huge revenue through it.

"At present, the Maharashtra government runs a paper lottery system. A proposal has been made to introduce an online lottery system which should be unveiled by April this year," he said. The state gets a mere Rs 132 crore from lotteries. Out of this, Rs 125 crore is from the tax recovered from lotteries of other states, another official in the finance department said.

This way, Maharashtra earns only Rs seven crore from the state-owned lotteries. Compared to this, a small state like Kerala earns Rs 1,300 crore annually, he said. He said the online lotteries are gaining popularity. "The north eastern states are getting good revenue. The online lotteries of other states do good business in Mumbai," the official noted.

In Kerala, lotteries are organised for building public utilities like water supply projects or bridges, he added.

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