Kerala State Lotteries is a

lottery A lottery is a form of gambling that involves the drawing of numbers at random for a prize. Some governments outlaw lotteries, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find some degree of ...

programme run by the

Government of Kerala Government of Kerala is the subnational government of the Indian state of Kerala. The government is led by a chief minister, who selects all the other ministers. The chief minister and their most senior ministers belong to the supreme decision ...

. Established in 1967, under the lottery department of the Government of Kerala, it is the first of its kind in India. In 1967 all private lotteries were banned and the Government of Kerala started the Kerala State Lotteries. The idea behind the setup of the new department was from the then Finance Minister of the state, P. K. Kunju. He had earlier experience of conducting lottery when he was the chairman of Kayamkulam MSM Trust. The objectives of starting the programme were to provide employment to people and supplement government finance without disturbing the public. The department soon became a model for other states in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. Soon many other states jumped into the bandwagon by starting their own lotteries. KarunyaLottery

As of 2021, the department now has more than 500 employees under its Directorate located at Vikas Bhavan at

Thiruvananthapuram Thiruvananthapuram (; ), also known by its former name Trivandrum (), is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala. It is the most populous city in Kerala with a population of 957,730 as of 2011. The encompassing urban agglomeration populati ...

, 14 District Offices, 21 sub lottery offices and a Regional Deputy Directorate at

Ernakulam Ernakulam () is the Central Business District of the city of Kochi in Kerala, India and has lent its name to the Ernakulam district. Many major establishments, including the Kerala High Court, the office of the Kochi Municipal Corporation a ...

. There is also an office of Regional Deputy Director for Audit in Kozhikodu. The department which was initially under the Department of Finance was later brought under the Taxes Department. The Kerala State Lotteries include seven weekly lotteries in a week, a monthly draw each month and 6 Bumper Lotteries in a year.

Types of weekly Kerala Lotteries

There are seven weekly lotteries conducted by the Kerala State Lottery Department now. The draw is conducted at 3:00 PM every day at Gorky Bhavan, Near Bakery Junction, Thiruvananthapuram. In addition to the weekly lotteries listed above, Kerala State runs several seasonal 'bumper' lotteries: Xmas, Summer, Vishu, Monsoon, Thiruvonam and Pooja.

Publishing of results

Kerala lottery draws for each weekly lottery are conducted at 3.00 pm on the draw date. The lottery department publishes the lottery draw result on the official website of Kerala lotteries on the same day. The Kerala lottery results are also published in the Kerala Government Gazette. The prize winners would have to verify the winning numbers with the result published in the Gazette and surrender the lottery ticket within 30 days of the draw date.

Benefits of the lottery

There are several benefits connected to the Kerala State Lottery. The GST received from the sale of lottery tickets has helped support several

welfare Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specificall ...

schemes in Kerala. One of these is the Karunya scheme that provides financial support to citizens of the state that can not afford their medical bills. Since its inception it has helped more than 27,000 citizens. The scheme focuses primarily on providing financial assistance to the poor people of Kerala suffering from serious ailments like Cancer, Haemophilia, Kidney and Heart diseases and for Palliative Care. Hundreds of families come above the poverty line every month through the Kerala Lottery. Thousands of people wait to see the results every day at 3 pm with the hope that they will win a lottery worth crores.

References

{{reflist Government finances in Kerala State agencies of Kerala Lotteries Gambling in India 1967 establishments in Kerala Organisations based in Thiruvananthapuram