After ban on lottery gamblers compensate with spin-off

There may be a blanket ban on lottery in Tamil Nadu but since the business operational in other states, the people here have developed a spin-off — A single digit lottery system that depends on the results of lotteries played in states like Kerala. As the winning numbers are published online, gamblers in the city compete to guess and bid on the last three digits of the winning number. 

The players are mostly daily wage earners and auto rickshaw drivers while the game is moderated by a few agents who track the winning numbers online. The police are restricted to only arresting a few agents who get out on bail easily. According to sources, the rapid arrests of agents in connection with the sale of single-digit lottery in the city are proof enough how it has been spreading like cancer. 

Since January, 94 men have been caught selling single-digit lottery but the police admit that arresting them have minimal impact as they would resume the business right after they are released. 

To stay away from the police’s radar, the single lottery system is now carried out over phones against the conventional method of writing the numbers on small chits and giving it to the participants. Since, the game is restricted to smaller groups, it makes it harder for police to track such offences. “Nowa-days days, when we find a group of men at one place, we check their phones to find out whether they indulge in single-digit lottery,” said an official. 

Modus operandi and structure 

Though it’s not clear how much money is involved in single-digit lottery business across the city, each group trades up to Rs 5 lakh on a daily basis. Most of these groups choose Kerala lottery results to trade in as they release their results and other updates online immediately and it helps gamblers here to decide winners in the city quickly. 

While typical lottery tickets will have more digits in their number series, gamblers here bet upon only the last three digits of the possible winning number. The gambling lasts just two to three hours between 1pm and 4 pm. 

The gambling head usually has three or four agents and would be in touch with them through phone numbers acquired specifically for this purpose. Around 1 pm, the players will text their choice of three-digit numbers to the agent based on what series are at stake for the day. The price for each number is fixed between Rs 40 and Rs 60 and one can buy any number of chits for one number or different numbers. The results are usually announced in Kerala around 2 pm and if someone had selected all three last digits of the winning lottery ticket, he would win upto Rs 25,000 for each chit. The larger the network, the higher the price. So, if a person had bought 10 chits for the same number for Rs 600, he would get upto Rs 2.5 lakh. If someone gets two digits correct, he would get upto Rs 10,000 for each chit. And if one gets one digit, he would be given a consolation price. By 3 pm, the winners would be known, and the money distributed. After the winners get their due, the agents handover the rest of the money to the head who operates the network. Agents or the middlemen work for a commission and there won’t be any direct interaction between the head of the network and the gamblers. 

The gambling is known as single-digit lottery because guessing even one digit correctly will fetch some price for the participants. This is what lures labourers and daily wage earners into the practise. 

An auto driver who participated in a gamble said that the agents would pay upto Rs 1 lakh to winners, but if the amount is bigger, they usually cheat the participants. “We can’t complaint to the police because it is not legal,” said the auto driver. According to him, Vyasarpadi and Washermanpet are areas where this happens in a large scale even though agents are spread across the city. 

Speaking about an agent who was arrested recently, a police official said, “From 1 pm, he keeps getting messages from his circle of customers who want to gamble for the day. These people are addicted to it,” he said. Since selling lottery is a bailable offence, police often slap IPC sections on such offenders to detain them for a couple of days. “Even then, after getting out of the prison, they resume their business but use different mobile numbers. Most of the heads of the network remain untraceable since they block the numbers of the agent once they get to know that we’ve nabbed them,” the official added. Owing to other more important cases pending, the police often do not follow these agents to bust the network. “The higher officials seem least concerned to trace the network heads as they are likely to be influential people,” said another official, who was recently transferred out of Chennai.

THE NETWORK 

• 94 arrests have been made in connection with selling of single-digit lottery since January. 
• Single-digit lottery network has spread its tentacles across the city, although in small groups.
• Each head gambler will have at least four agents and sub-agents.
• Agents will act as middlemen between their head and tail-end gamblers — mostly daily wage labourers.
• Agents are responsible to collect their choice of numbers from customers and distribute the prize money.
• In the end, they submit the rest of the amount to the head and take a commission.