Public’ opinion on lottery ban may be doctored’ — MPs

Some MPs feel that an impression of public outcry had been created against the ban, despite a consensus in Parliament, and later at a conference of chief ministers.

A sample of some letters received by the committee — several of them were pro forma replies while others may have had different handwritings but were mailed from the same post office — indicate an orchestrated response.

BJP MP Vijay Goel, who had been advocating a complete ban on lotteries, said that the similarity of tone and language in a majority of the letters pointed to an attempt by dealers and agents to influence the process of evaluating public opinion on the matter. “Over 50,000 responses have been received by the committee, and is it possible that almost all should be written in one style and language?” he asked and added: “The responses to the Committee are clearly being manipulated by the lottery kings.”

Goel also alleged that a massive exercise at influencing members of the Committee was on and that the signature campaign being undertaken by the lottery traders was not entirely genuine. “A number of MPs have told me their signatures have either been forged or wrongly appended on representations. A similar exercise was undertaken in 1998 when the Lottery Regulation Bill, which banned single digit lotteries, was enacted,” he said.

The present controversy, and the issue being debated by the Standing Committee, is whether after partial regulation, a countrywide ban should be imposed on all categories of lotteries. But even before the Committee submits its report, several complaints have been routed to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and the CBI on specific lottery frauds.

The Income-Tax (I-T) Department had conducted its own investigations against M.K. Subba — described as the “lottery king” of Nagaland — and as documents available with The Indian Express show, had asked for the CBI to look into the alleged links of Subba with S. Martin, one of the largest distributors of Sikkim Lotteries.

Among the complaints sent to the CVC, one is about the alleged large-scale rigging of draws in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Sikkim and Bhutan, where local sales in the territories of the individual sales were zero. On April 18, the 10 prize winning numbers of the Sikkim Yellow Weekly and the Bhutan Kalpataru Lottery, were identical. The explanation given by representatives of the All India Federation of Lottery Trade was that the “coincidence” occurred because the two lottery centres were using the same computer software.

Backing MPs like Vijay Goel is Ashwani Khurana, once a prominent player in the lottery business in Sikkim, who claims he quit the trade since it had become too murky. “The banning of single-digit lotteries has only half solved the problem since all sorts of irregularities continue. Governments are blatantly violating the Supreme Court’s guidelines on how a lottery should be administered and run only in individual states. Prizes are being rigged and unclaimed prize money is being siphoned off by the sole agents,” he said.

Linked to the issue of total ban is the plea taken by states that the ban would deprive them of an important source of income. In their response to the Standing Committee, the Sikkim government categorically stated: “With no significance resource base revenue from Sikkim, lotteries are the single largest source of revenue in the state.”

And in a confidential report, the Director of Lotteries in Himachal Pradesh listed a number of improper practices and noted that all the sole selling agents in the country were “united in perpetuating some improper practices”. “They are able to dictate terms in any lottery tender. The cash-starved states are thus browbeaten into fallen in line…,” it said.

Curiously enough, the Punjab government had taken the line that lotteries are a necessary evil and the proposed ban would only force the people to indulge in other forms of gambling. “It is basic human instinct to try one’s luck at every available opportunity…if legal lotteries are not available, unauthorised and illegal forms of gambling like satta and matka are bound to replace them.”

This is the argument being presented by the All India Federation of Lottery Trade. The Federation is an apex body of 18 lottery associations and its president, Usman Fayaz, says the proposed ban would rob 27 lakh people of their livelihood and the lottery agents and sellers a total annual earning of Rs 10,800 crore. “The Central Government has been telling the states to fend for their own finances and the ban would deny many states crucial revenue. It is because of this reason we are favoring regulation of the trade and not a total ban,” he said.

In figures presented to the Government, the Federation calculated a Rs 50,000 crore annual turnover for their trade. The body’s vice president V.K. Vasudeva pointed out that states like Nagaland, Sikkim and Arunachal are poor, far-flung and economically backward, and as they are not getting their share of democratic governance, ban on lotteries would create a havoc for their economy. “The Government must give alternative earnings and rehabilitation before even thinking of imposing a ban,” he asserted.