PALAKKAD : Cashing in on people’s lottery craze, ‘ezhuthu lottery’, an illegal gambling operation is thriving in various parts of Palakkad district, especially in the western region bordering Malappuram district.
According to authorities, ‘ezhuthu lottery’ ,run parallel to the government-operated one, has been prevalent in various places ever since Kerala banned other-state lotteries.
In ‘ezhuthu lottery’, a person books a three-digit number in advance through WhatsApp/Telegram message or in person spending `10. If the three-digit number matches the last three digits of the winning number of lotteries drawn run by the Kerala, Sikkim or Bhutan governments on the particular day, the person wins `5,000. A person can book as many numbers as he wishes. The prize money is given to the winner in cash or transferred to account within hours.
Though the lotteries department and police have been cracking down on the rackets and agents operating ‘ezhuthu lottery’, it has been gaining popularity, especially in north and central Kerala.
A senior officer with the Directorate of Kerala State Lotteries said though ‘ezhuthu lottery’ operations have been in existence for several years, we came to know of its magnitude only in 2018. “In January 2018, a Tirur-based gambling group had to shell out `60 crore as prize money after hundreds of people booked the winning three-digit number ‘018’,” the officer said.
‘Hard to track ‘ezhuthu lottery’ players, agents’
“It took almost two months for the group to disburse the fund to the winners. Though their activities got affected initially owing to fund shortage, they became reliable and popular in Central Kerala after the group paid out the entire amount,” the officer said.
According to the officer, the agents could be Kerala lottery agents or dealers, drivers, tea shop vendors or anyone who has a craze for lottery purchase and sale.
“It’s a huge gambling market. We don’t really know how many crores of rupees are spent on ‘ezhuthu lottery’ on a day in Kerala. But the loss is definitely for the lotteries department and the state government,” the officer said. In the recent past, the police have booked people from Palakkad, Malappuram, Kasaragod, Wayanad, Kannur, Ernakulam, Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram districts.
A senior police officer in Palakkad said it is really hard to track the ezhuthu lottery players as well as agents.
“The agents normally use three or four mobile phone connections and they book the three-digit numbers via WhatsApp and Telegram. They have also started using mobile applications and billing machines to print the numbers. The servers are learnt to be set outside the country,” the officer said.
B K Vijayalakshmi, district lottery officer, Palakkad, told TNIE that they take action whenever a complaint is received. “Once we receive a tip-off, we inform the director of the Kerala State Lotteries and taken action with the assistance of police. Also, we have a district-level committee, headed by the district collector, to monitor the illegal lottery trading and gambling on a monthly-basis. The committee includes district police chief and the lottery officer also,” the officer said.
Department sources said licences of at least 20 lottery agents in Palakkad and Malappuram were suspended in the past year for engaging in ‘ezhuthu lottery’ trading.
K S Anilkumar, deputy director, (Modernisation and Internal Vigilance), Directorate of State Lotteries, Thiruvananthapuram, said serious efforts are being made to educate the public through advertisements and awareness programmes urging them not to fall for illegal activities such as online and ezhuthu lotteries.
According to lottery agents and police, ‘ezhuthu lottery’ earned popularity and credibility because the chance of winning prizes in Kerala lottery is very less when the number of total tickets sold in a day is taken into consideration.
“One has to spend `40 minimum to purchase a Kerala lottery ticket. Here, you can book a number with just `10. Also, you get the full prize amount without any tax reduction in the ezhuthu lottery system. The income of the agents are also high compared to Kerala lottery. There are ezhuthu lottery agents who earn around `12,000 a day,” said an insider. “It’s a win-win situation for both agents and players,” he added.
