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Saturday, August 16, 2008

Centre to regulate Lottery

MUMBAI: Till last month, the Union home ministry had wanted to ban the many lotteries being run in India, but pressure from various states forced the central government to allow the lotteries. However, the Centre will soon be announcing regulations that the lotteries must follow.

The commissioner for lotteries, Maharashtra, Seema Vyas said that the Union home department will soon have a meeting to allow lotteries that are regulated. In a meeting held last month over the issue of banning lotteries , Vyas strongly defended the Mahrashtra government's stand to allow lotteries . The state government feels that it is difficult to ban lotteries, and that the illegal matka racket will flourish if official lotteries are banned.

Sources in the state government said that the lottery commissioners of several states, like West Bengal, Nagaland and Sikkim, pleaded with the Centre that lotteries be allowed to continue.

However, in Mahrashtra, single-digit lotteries have been banned because of the similarity to matka. States which allow lotteries include West Bengal, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya , Sikkim, Punjab, Maharashtra , Goa and Kerala.

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