AGARTALA, April 7 (TIWN): Tripura is a very small state in the North East of India where gambling has become rampant. And adding feather to it the illegal selling of lottery tickets has now under the limelight.

However, according to the sources, the capital city has now become a hub of illegal lottery tickets while the illegal traders are making a hefty profit from it. After the ending and gambling business selling of illegal lottery tickets has now under the limelight. Illegal lotteries are clandestinely sold at teashops and newspaper stalls across the state.

Santirbazar SDM recently seized at least 2500 illegal lottery tickets. According to the report a large of number of traders were found engaged selling the tickets at the sub division, while the customers were also found staging a bee storming gathering to buy those. It was revealed that those lottery tickets seized recently arrived from Agartala.

The tickets were allegedly kept at a tea stall under Santirbazar sub-division, after they were brought from Agartala on Saturday. Later acting on a tip off the district administration conducting a raid recovered a total of 25000 illegal tickets. The tickets were later handed over to the police.

Apart from illegally selling lotteries in states where they are prohibited, it is also alleged that the winning number always comes from the unsold tickets, people who have the winning combination are denied their prize and if at all given any prize, the amount given is less than the 75 percent (of the total prize money) statutorily fixed.

Lotteries are banned in 17 Indian states, while it is legal to purchase lotteries in the remaining 12 states. However there is an enormous craze for lotteries even in the states where it is banned. This has led to the increasing sale of illegal lotteries across the country. In fact, even in states where lotteries are legal, illegal lottery rackets are rampant because of the stringent provisions of the Lotteries Regulation Act, 1998.