Sweep tickets a draw !

People in a frenzy over highest jackpot prize

by Jayampathy JAYASINGHE

A variety of colourful lotteries are being sold these days by lottery vendors in almost every nook and corner of the country. They are most ubiquitous in the city of Colombo as in other places. The vendors have a knack of persuading wary customers to buy the lotteries against all odds and succeed. After all they are born salesmen who do not have any kind of marketing experience. However to make matters easier for them the National Lotteries Board and the Development Lotteries Board have provided them with small booths to engage in their businesses. The lottery booths display the colourful lotteries of different varieties.

In fact the Lottery fever has hit a high pitch these days owing to one of the biggest jackpots offered in the lottery history of Sri Lanka. The jackpot prize of the Mahajana Sampatha ticket is the biggest prize offered so far since the days of the Galle Gymkhana lottery in the early forties. The Mahajana Sampatha jackpot stands Friday at Rs. 48 million (Rs. 482 lakhs) and is snowballing until some lucky winner cracks the jackpot. People have gone frenzy these days because of the jackpot prize. What keeps the lottery enthusiasts ticking and spellbound is due to the large prize money of Rs 48 million being offered. The lottery enthusiasts will be jubilant until the giant prize is won by some one. Sure enough the wheel of fortune will keep on turning and the pennies from heaven is going to fall on somebody sooner or later.

But perception is growing among people that the jackpot will be finally cracked next week or so while others still believe that the prize will snowball up to Rs. 60 million (Rs. 600 lakhs) before anybody cracks it. Whoever is going to win the jackpot will definitely grab the prize money with much delight. After all who wouldn't like such a colossal amount of money i.e. Rs. 60 million pouring into their coffers with little effort.

We visited several stalls and observed persons purchasing tickets with a glimmer of hope. Although every one hopes to be a millionaire in the future but in reality only one in a million will be the overall winner some day. To find more about the lottery fever engulfing the Colombo city we visited several lottery booths in the Fort and Pettah areas and spoke to a few lottery vendors who have been in the business for several years. Pettah is an area pulsating with people and is the hub for lottery vendors. A carnival atmosphere seems to prevail all day long with lottery booths decorated with colourful lotteries to attract customers.

The lottery vendors perform an arduous task by working in the mid day sun until late in the evenings. Fort area is another hub littered with lottery vendors. Many have set up their booths along the York street arcade and at the lower Baron Jayatlleke Mawatha and at the Lower Chatham street.

We spoke to G.M.A Stephen, a veteran lottery vendor at the York Street arcade. He has been a lottery vendor for almost 23 years. He said the Mahajana Sampatha was the most popular lottery ticket as it tops the list. The second slot goes to the Saturday Fortune Development lottery. Asked why the Mahajana Sampatha sells more than other tickets, Stephen said it had been the case right along. He said it was probably due to the large prize being offered. All other remaining lotteries fall into the third slot due to lesser prize money being offered to winners, he said.

We spoke to Nandana Hettiarachchi, a lottery seller in Colombo Fort. He had an interesting anecdote. He said a businessman who used to buy around 100 Mahajana Sampatha tickets from him was absent for days. I reserved several tickets for him and he turned up suddenly. On the day of the draw he spotted the businessman going past his lottery stall and he waved at him. The businessman who bought a book containing 20 Mahajana Sampatha tickets later discovered that he had won the First prize in the Mahajana Sampatha draw and other consolation prizes to his amazement.

Nandasena said that another lottery seller in Fort area had won Rs. 4.6 million. He said the man who purchased the ticket accidentally tore off a portion of a Saturday Fortune ticket and refused to buy it. The seller however had kept the ticket in his pocket and later found the same ticket had won the first prize.

K. D. Somapala another lottery vendor was a former employee of Lake House when it was under a private management. He says people prefer the Mahajana Sampatha lottery because it offers the biggest jackpot. But some people grumble when they buy other varieties of lottery tickets due to low winning prizes. "Why can't they increase the jackpot prizes of other lotteries as well " he quipped. We then spoke to Saliya Gamanpilla another veteran lottery vendor at the York street arcade. Saliya had been in business for more than 16 years. According to Saliya people prefer the Mahajana Sampatha more than any other ticket. " I have sold thousands of Mahajana Sampatha tickets and found the most sought after lottery." he said. Perhaps millions may chase after the pot of gold hovering above at the end of a rainbow. Many will expect pennies from heaven to fall on them although one person is going to be the overall winner.

The history of lotteries dates back to the Galle Gymkhana Club lottery in 1940. The tickets were then sold at Rs. 2. Thereafter the Hospital lottery commenced in 1955. The Hospital Lotteries were distributed island-wide through a network of sales agents. Most of them were well established businessmen. There were 90 sales agents in the island at that time.

The inaugural Hospital Lottery was held at the Colombo Town Hall on 15th September 1955 and tickets were priced at 50 cents. Records indicate that the first prize of Rs. 97,343 /50, was won by D. K. Naide from Kegalle.

Thereafter the first outstation draw was held in Kandy and the winner of the first prize was one Mrs. Dayawathie from Welisara. Later the then Minister of Health and Local Government, S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike initiated the Hospital Lottery in 1949. Subsequently the Hospital Lotteries Act No.4 was enacted in Parliament in 1955. In 1960 the government felt the need to organise the lottery to generate funds for development projects. Revenue generated from the sale of lotteries were to be used in areas where it was most needed. This ultimately led to the formation of National Lotteries Board with wider powers under the Finance Act No.11 of 1963.

The Hospital Lotteries Board was later converted and renamed as the National Lotteries Board. The change brought about a steady improvement in the distribution of tickets all over the country. Sir Richard Aluwihare became the first Chairman of the National Lotteries Board.

Later he became the first Ceylonese Inspector General of Police. The first National Lottery was drawn at the Independence Hall at Torrington Square in Colombo on 29th February 1964. Later Singha Weerasekera succeeded L.C. de Silva as Chairman of the Lotteries Board who introduced Luxury Benz cars as the first prize.

In 1965 at the 46th National Lottery, a luxury Benz car was offered as the first prize.

In 1968 the National Lotteries Board introduced a lottery ticket by the name of Jathika Sampatha which was ultimately renamed as Mahajana Sampatha in 1970. The first Mahajana Sampatha draw held at the Colombo Town Hall under the patronage of Prime Minister Mrs, Sirimavo Bandaranaike in 1970. Much later instant lotteries were introduced.

There were several instant lotteries in circulation such as Ureka, Luck of the Draw, Wheel of Fortune, Lucky Seven, Thunderbolt, Punkalasa, Dathukete, Subanekatha, Rideeres, Lucksetha, Isurutharu, Cash Game, Semaboomi, Punsanda, Vasana Kirana, Hiruudawa, Randoratuwa, Powerbowl, Veeraya, Veena, Jayarella, Arunalu, Pahantharuwa, Muthuhara, Manaram, Minikirula. Altogether 122 instant tickets by various names have been in the market during the last 17 years.

The older instant tickets had Jackpot prizes ranging from Rs. 100,000 - 1,000,000.