Online lottery ticket sales coming to Bengal state

Media reports from the state of Bengal in India this week indicate that the West Bengal state lottery will be making ticket sales online available in a bid to boost sales and ultimately increase contributions to welfare projects.

“Tickets of West Bengal state lottery will soon be available on the Internet. We won’t run online lotteries but tickets of existing draws will be available on the Internet. This will help generate more revenue,” a senior official revealed this week.

Sources told the Telegraph newspaper that the online lottery sale was part of the finance department’s initiative to generate more revenues as the cash-strapped government was finding it difficult to find resources for various “welfare schemes”.

Officials point to the success of the state lottery of Kerala and believe there is an opportunity to significantly increase sales through online ticketing. The Bengal lottery currently generates Rs 35 crore (US$5.1 million) annually through the lottery, a figure which officials estimate could be boosted to Rs 2,000 crore per year.

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