Onam bumper: A super lotto for Kerala Govt, generating ₹174 crore in just a month

Kanhangad (Kerala): Ticket sales for Kerala Lottery’s Thiruvonam Bumper, launched with a first prize of ₹30 crore, are heading towards record figures. A total of 44,82,440 tickets have been sold so far. The ticket is priced at ₹500. Agents pay the government ₹390 per ticket plus 28% GST. Based on the ₹390 rate alone, the government has generated ₹174,81,51,600 to date. The total prize money to be distributed stands at ₹125.54 crore, along with ₹12.55 crore allocated for agency commissions – bringing the total payout to ₹138.09 crore.

Sales opened just one month ago, with 28 days still remaining until the draw.

The Thiruvonam Bumper ticket price was revised to ₹500 and the first prize raised to ₹25 crore in 2022. In 2021, when the top prize was ₹12 crore and the ticket price was ₹300, a total of 5.4 million tickets were sold. The following year, doubling the grand prize met with an overwhelming public response, leading to the sale of 6.655 million tickets out of the 6.75 million printed.

In 2023, 85 lakh tickets were printed, of which 75.76 lakh were sold. Following a surplus of nearly 10 lakh unsold tickets, the government capped printing at 80 lakh tickets in 2024, leaving around 8,50,000 unsold. Printing was further adjusted down to 75 lakh tickets last year, selling out completely.

This year, the jackpot was increased to ₹30 crore without raising the ticket price. The second prize awards ₹1 crore each to 20 winners, while the third prize grants ₹25 lakh each to another 20 winners. Across all categories, a total of 5,34,670 prizes will be awarded. The draw is scheduled to take place on September 26.