A Comprehensive Guide to Legality of Online Lottery in India:

As authorized by the Central Government of India under the Lotteries (Regulation) Act 1998, individual States can formulate their own law for playing the lottery. Therefore, currently the lottery is legal in 13 Indian States and banned in the rest.

However, it’s interesting that all of these legal lotteries in India are only paper-based. There is no way of buying a ticket to any Indian lottery online. In the recent past, the State of Sikkim did come up with an online government lottery called Playwin, but the same has now been discontinued.

Yet, the Lotteries (Regulation) Act 1998 has not been amended or any new rule passed that specifically bans online lotteries in India. So, unless it is an online lottery organized privately by a resident of India, it can be considered legal.

This loophole in the law has led to Indian lotto lovers participating in world lottos such as the US Powerball, EuroMillions, EuroJackpot, Mega Millions, Mega-Sena, France Lotto and more.

Lottery websites run by foreing organizations act as the middlemen, allowing players to either buy an official ticket via authorized lotto agents or bet on the outcome of the official draw and win the same prizes.

Payments are usually accepted and made in Indian Rupees, which makes it all the more convenient for the players to enter international draws from the comfort of their homes.

But, at the risk of digressing, first let’s take a look at the legal landscape of lottery in India in general.

Please keep in mind that…

● There is no blanket ban on the lottery in India.

● Legal Indian government lotteries are all paper-based.

● Paper lottery is legal in 13 Indian States at the time of writing this article.

● Lottery is illegal in the rest of the 15 Indian States and 8 Union Territories.

● Private lotteries - whether online or offline - are banned in India.

● Playing world lottos can be considered legal since the law does not specifically ban the same.

Indian States where Government Lottery is Legal

Below is a list of the 13 Indian States where government lottery is legal in India.

● Assam

● Arunachal Pradesh

● Goa

● Kerala

● Madhya Pradesh

● Maharashtra

● Manipur

● Meghalaya

● Mizoram

● Nagaland

● Punjab

● Sikkim

● West Bengal

In each of these States, a dedicated Lottery Department organizes and supervises the draws. All such departments operate under the supervision of the Central Finance Department of India.

Every State where the lottery is legal has its own schemes and prize structures. The date and time of draw are decided beforehand and paper tickets are printed in government-approved printing presses only.

The tickets are sold directly by the Department or via authorized agents and vendors. You will find permanent as well as make-shift shops in local markets, bus stands, railway stations, post offices, and public sewa kendras of the States.

For each draw, jumbo lottery machines are put to use. The winning numbers are drawn randomly so each draw is rig-free. Furthermore, officers are appointed to oversee the operations so transparency can be maintained.

Jackpots and top-tier prizes are handed out to winners by the concerned Lottery Department. However, lower-tier prizes need to be claimed via the authorized ticket sellers.

The procedure for claiming the prize is straightforward: you need to submit your winning ticket along with a duly filled Claims Form issued by the Department as well as all required documents for verification.

Cross-selling of tickets is generally discouraged. However, it depends again on individual States. For instance, Kerala believes in selling tickets only within the State boundaries. Also, it has banned any other State from selling their lotto ticket within Kerala.

On the other hand, Punjab believes in selling tickets in all those States where the lottery is legal, provided there is no restriction imposed by the concerned States itself. Accordingly, Punjab State Lottery tickets can be bought in Union Territories like Delhi without legal hiccups.

Whatever may be the scenario regarding the sale of tickets, there is one rule which binds all the States with government lotteries: they must always sell physical paper tickets and never online.

Because of this specific rule, playing the lottery online in India might seem illegal. On top of that, players also fear the rules enacted under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA), which specifically prohibits foreign transactions related to remittance out of lottery winnings.

However, there are nuances you need to take into consideration before jumping to a conclusion. Before we discuss any further, let’s also take a look at the Indian States where playing the lottery is illegal.

Lottery-Banned States in India

15 Indian States and 8 Union Territories have outlawed the lottery. Some of these States even had their own government lottery schemes in the past, which have now been discontinued. Find them listed below.

● Andaman and Nicobar Islands

● Andhra Pradesh

● Bihar

● Chandigarh

● Chattisgarh

● Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu

● Delhi

● Gujarat

● Haryana

● Himachal Pradesh

● Jammu and Kashmir

● Jharkhand

● Karnataka

● Ladakh

● Lakshadweep

● Odisha

● Puducherry

● Rajasthan

● Tamil Nadu

● Telangana

● Tripura

● Uttar Pradesh

● Uttarakhand

Please note that all of these States have placed a ban on organizing lotteries and selling tickets to the same within the State. However, some of them such as Delhi and Haryana allow the sale of tickets to some of those lotteries that are organized by the other States where it is legal. It’s different strokes for different folks.

Are Online International Lotteries Legal in India?

Let’s come back to our topic of discussion. There are two aspects to consider here.

● There is no specific ban on online lotteries in India, which makes international lotteries legal.

● World lotteries are organized by overseas operators, which makes them free from Indian lottery law.

● Such lottos are not privately organized by an Indian resident, which, yet again, makes them legal.

● FEMA prohibits you from remitting funds abroad to buy lottery tickets and withdraw winnings. But this is limited to foreign currencies only. If a lotto site supports transactions in Indian Rupees without the need for currency conversion, playing on it is similar to playing on a domestic site. This, in turn, dismisses the applicability of FEMA rules altogether.

In a nutshell, playing an Indian lottery online might not be possible or legal. However, playing a legit international lottery online from India is possible and can be considered legal.