An industry report on online and mobile lotteries reveals that the market is set to reach almost $6 billion in the next four years. More users than ever before discover the convenience of online lottery ticket distribution and India is not an exception.

Online Lotteries Gathering Speed

The total market size of online mobile lotteries is projected to almost double by 2027, the annual study of the sector has shown. From an estimated $3.1 billion in 2020, internet-based lotteries are set to reach $5.8 billion in the next few years. This confirms the strong growth trend for the sector, estimated to maintain a 9.5% CAGR over the period.

Like many other industries, the lottery segment has benefitted from the side-effects of an accelerated digital transition in the wake of Covid-induced physical distancing. This has been the case for both mature markets (the US, Canada, Japan, most European nations), as well as emerging global players like India and Brazil.

Quite relevantly, Bharat-based sites Online Lotteries India and SevenJackpots have been cited as prime examples of lottery research sources, providing trusted and genuine information on a booming market. The Union market is among the top growers on a global scale, second only to the likes of China, the study confirms.

Are India’s Government Lotteries Falling Behind Online Competition?

Previous research papers on the Union lottery market have already stressed its scope and growth potential. Beside its cultural and social importance, India’s legal lotteries used to employ – at their peak – around 10 lakh small retailers and brought in over Rs 50,000 crore to the state and Central budgets (in sales and taxation revenues).

The recent decline of paper-based lottery sales was only partially attributed to anti-Covid measures, the study explains. On one hand, high GST rates drove some users to black-market and hawala lotteries, as ticket prices rose. On the other hand, the widespread availability of online retail alternatives pushed the tech-savvy Indian public to some of the more reputable offshore lottery platforms.

The ascent of online distribution is not only bad news for government run lottery schemes, experts remind. Media projections on how big the lottery market can become – if only shifted to online and mobile – illustrate its potential and significance for the Indian economy.

The hugely popular legal lotteries still sell hundreds of millions of tickets on a weekly basis. Lottery being the game of choice of around 50% of India’s real-money players, it has the potential of keeping around 75 million players on the domestic market, projected to purchase at least 15 billion lottery tickets annually.

With UPI raising the bottom threshold of gaming transactions to Rs 50, the figures amount to at least Rs 75,000 crore (or over $10 billion) in sheer sales revenues, not counting taxation income from resellers and player winnings. This way, by effectively transitioning to online operations, India’s government lotteries could roughly double their size and provide an even higher contribution to welfare funding and other public projects.