Feeling lucky? Try your luck at winning a lottery

Champa Thushara, like many other Sri Lankans buys a lottery ticket every week and has done so for the past 15 years, hoping to one day win big.

Like him, countless other Sri Lankans are also in the habit of participating in lotteries. Just think back on how many times you’ve bought a ticket, hoping to be the next big winner? Millions of Sri Lankans do it every week and only the very lucky few reap the benefits. For those who haven't yet taken the gamble or don't indulge in this, what are the odds that you are going to hit the jackpot?

When the grand prize for Mahajana Sampatha, the most popular of all lotteries, hit over Rs.60 million, the National Lotteries Board (NLB) sold an incredible 5.3 million tickets for that week. Formerly known as the Jathika Sampatha, it was introduced in 1968 and is drawn on Tuesday and Friday of each week. General Manager of the NLB, M.S. Karunaratne, proudly informs us that NLB has been the recipient of the SLIM award for the most popular brand so it should come as no surprise that on average, Rs.25 – 30 million is spent per week on tickets by individuals, hoping to win the super prize of Rs. 10 million or one of the three Rs.1 million prizes.

However, out of the total possible 25 million lottery tickets that could have been printed for the Mahajana Sampatha, only around 5 million tickets are printed and put into circulation. The remaining 20-odd million tickets remained unprinted. This means that the winning ticket could very well have been among the 20-odd million tickets that were never printed and therefore, never had a chance to be circulated.

This begs an extremely important question to be asked. When people buy lottery tickets, are they aware that there is a huge possibility that the winning ticket is not in circulation? Would anyone even bother buying a ticket if they knew their chances on any given week could possibly be nil? To find out, we asked a cross section of people to learn how knowledgeable they were about lotteries. Most people who said they rarely purchased tickets for any draw expressed the most surprise at finding out it is possible the winning ticket would never be printed.

"That's not very fair," one man said, expressing some dismay and confusion at the revelation. He added that he doesn't buy tickets frequently but when he does, he would like to know he has a real chance at winning. There were mixed results when it came to regular ticket buyers. Some were aware but to others, it was an eye-opening disclosure. One man who is employed as a caretaker has been buying tickets every week for the past ten years from his hometown of Kotmale and Colombo where he now works. As is most commonly the case, he has yet to win anything. He was unaware of the fact that not all tickets are printed and circulated for purchase. However, he told us that he still won't stop buying tickets because he hopes to one day win big. His wife on the other hand was not as forgiving to this fact. After some thought, she told her husband it made her sad to think about all the money they could have saved over the years if they hadn't bought any tickets.

To answer more of your pressing questions, The Sunday Times FT took a sneak peek behind the scenes to find out what really goes into giving you the big bag of gold!

The NLB falls directly under the purview of the Treasury Department in the Ministry of Finance. There is a board of directors who meets twice a month, headed by an executive Chairman. The NLB has 263 employees of which there are 62 district dealers and around 3000 agents.

The draw machine is computerized with the lottery tickets being printed by the State Printing Corporation (SPC). The combination of ticket numbers are randomly generated by the machine. The number of tickets that are printed for any given lottery is based on market demand.

All other lotteries use the services of private sector printing companies. According to Karunaratne, private companies follow the same process as the SPC. He explained that there are specifications and conditions which are laid down in the tender document when securing private printing companies. "They have signed an agreement with us and if there are any problems such as duplication of tickets due to negligence on their part, they not only have to answer to the NLB but they have to bear the costs," Karunaratne explained. The NLB also makes inspections of these private printers once a week to make sure everything is up to standard.

Karunaratne points out that the process is completely automated unlike in the past when it was done manually, adding that there are several security measures in place that go into the process of printing the lottery tickets. "We take several precautions to avoid duplicate printing of tickets," Karunaratne insisted, even mentioning that the paper the tickets are printed on is unique. He explained that in the past, NLB employees were prohibited from participating in lotteries due to the manual process involved but since everything is now computer automated, they are free to indulge as much as they want. In fact, he says he himself is a frequent participant in the lotteries.

Transparency
The NLB is governed by the 1963 Finance Act and has gazetted rules and regulations. "The GM has to be present at every draw and all the draws have to be witnessed by police officers above the rank of ASP," said Karunaratne. He added that a nominee from the Auditor Generals’ Department, usually a chartered accountant, also has to be present. In addition to the GM, another director from the NLB will also be a witness to the draw and in certain instances, the NLB will invite officers from the relevant ministries to also be present. "The whole process is very closely monitored," emphasized Karunaratne.

Every week, the balls that are used in the draws are sent to the ITI, a government body which certifies weights and measurements, for inspection. In addition, if the auditors want to randomly check the weights, the NLB has no problems in allowing it to do so. The balls are then stored safely in a locked compartment with the auditor having one key and the NLB in possession of the other as to prevent any ball tampering or manipulation.

NLB Administrator Chaminda Abeyratne pulled out tickets he had purchased (feeling lucky no doubt!) and showed us that each ticket has a unique computerized bar code which is scanned in the database to verify its authenticity. Furthermore, winning tickets are sent to the Government Examiner of Questioned Documents (EQD) for analysis and verification. If the super prize is not claimed on any given week, the winnings are accumulated and get transferred to the following week. However, just don't forget that prize earnings are subject to government taxes.

From the ticket sales numbers provided by the NLB, it certainly looks as if there are many out there who feel lucky enough to win the grand prize! The Govisetha, drawn on Monday, generally sells 1.7- 2 million tickets per week.

The Mahajana Sampatha is drawn on Tuesday and Friday with 2.5 – 3.0 million tickets sold on average. Wednesday's draw is the Jayaviru, created especially for the families of soldiers. The lottery sells about 1.3 to 1.4 million tickets per week of which 15 – 20% of the proceeds go to relevant funds through the Treasury Department. Karunaratne said that, "They look after the families of our fallen heroes and provide them things like housing." Thursday's draw, created for the Social Services Department and disaster management is the Vasana Sampatha, selling approximately 1.5 – 2.0 million tickets weekly.

One can hardly dispute that this is an astounding amount of money raked in through ticket sales each week. So where does all the money go? When one buys an average lottery ticket priced at Rs.10, the person is automatically contributing to one of several social service projects the NLB is contributing to. The rest goes is distributed among many other stakeholders. Fifty percent or Rs.5 goes back to the board. The district dealers make a 10 cent commission while the agents make a commission of Rs.1.50. Fifteen percent goes to the Treasury Department and finally, the NLB winds up with 19 cents for its expenses, a fact which Karunaratne states forlornly. "Since the volume of tickets sold is high, the margin for the district dealers is good," said Karunaratne.

It is possible for lottery winners to keep their identities a secret but most want to publicize their winnings. "Our main interest is to protect their safety," said Karunaratne. So be assured that if you do win and you don't want the entire country to know, the NLB will be more than happy to accommodate your request. Last week's Rs.60 million Mahajana Sampatha winner from Ratnapura has yet to collect his winnings but rest assured that when he finally does, he will be one very happy man.