Large Cities Winning India’s Lottery Market Share, But Other States Are Catching Up With Some Digital Help

For a country with a deep-seated passion for extracting lucky numbers, it's no surprise that lotteries have been a popular Indian pastime for many decades—even pre-digital times. And it is evident that the lottery business is thriving in India, driven by demand in large and well-developed states and cities where it's legal to operate in.

Large India cities a huge market for lottery

Government reports on India's gambling sector are scarce, more so on state lotteries. However, latest research paints a vibrant picture of how the domestic gambling industry—both online and offline—is flourishing.

The ENV Media report, Dissecting the Indian lottery market, showed that Maharashtra—with its Tier-1 cities Mumbai and Pune-is "a market to be reckoned with" when it comes to online blackjack gambling with almost 20% of all user traffic and value. The report utilized the segmented aggregate data of 78,000 users that accessed SevenJackpots' online lottery page in the first four months of 2021.

In the second place is Telangana (9.02% user traffic and 9.19% sessions), followed by Tamil Nadu (8.83% user traffic, 9.18% sessions), Karnataka (8.34% user traffic, 8.36% sessions), and West Bengal (7.64% user traffic, 7.5% sessions).

It's interesting to note that aside from Maharashtra, Karnataka and West Bengal, almost every other state that dominated the list does not have a legal lottery in its territory. Currently, as many as 13 states across the country allow the sale of lottery tickets, including Sikkim, Nagaland, Goa, Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya, Punjab, and West Bengal.

"Large and well-developed States and Cities count as much as consumption habits and cultural patterns. These main factors seem able to overcome various barriers and challenges, e.g., legal and distribution coverage issues," according to ENV Media analysts. "However, it is just as undeniable that large areas of India that do not have access to legal State-run lotteries are likely to seek alternatives, whether online or on the black market."

Changing times a catalyst for India lottery's online adoption

Lottery has been around in India for a long time, with Kerala establishing the first state lottery in 1967. Nowadays, lottery tickets are still sold via retailers and controlled by a state government-operated central server—but the rapidly changing times may just prove to be the catalyst for operators to shift towards purely online lottery operations.

Kerala, which has reported "smuggling tickets out of the state in bulk," can benefit greatly if it digitizes its entire lottery industry given that it has registered the second largest internet penetration of 56% statewide. As ENV Media analysts pointed out:

"One way or another, the awareness—and respective demand—for online lottery is destined to increase in the coming years. Where paper-based lottery is still the norm, online distribution will also make it more efficient and easy to access. With the constant levels of lottery demands and rates of technological adoption across the Union, draw-based games (e.g., online bingo) are likely to evolve rather than shrink in market size."

Disclaimer: This is a partnered post. DriveSpark was not involved in the creation of this content.