Nagpur: A dusty signboard foisting a gamechanger in fortunes hangs from a window of a decrepit building in a lane leading to Itwari Sarafa Oli — Nagpur’s traditional gold market. Inside workers, mostly from West Bengal, jammed in matchbox rooms are busy sculpting jewellery for a paltry wage.
For Burdwan’s Zainul Shaikh who set up a lottery shop down the Sarafa lane two years ago, Bengali workers hoping to strike gold make up his loyal clientele.He sells Nagaland’s Dear lottery, which has a high demand in West Bengal and immigrants from the state don’t miss to buy it, he says.
“I would sell this lottery brand in Burdwan district of Bengal, but soon my business shrunk as numerous shops mushroomed. I shifted to Itwari in Nagpur along with other jewellery sculptors and Bengalis residing here bet their lives on Dear. And this keeps my business going,” says Zainul.
Dear lottery hogged the limelight recently not as a jackpot, but due to the controversy surrounding electoral bonds disclosed by State Bank of India. Lottery King Santiago Martin’s Future Gaming is the distributor of Dear lottery in Nagpur and other parts of Maharashtra. Its biggest market is in Bengal, but its influence straddles 1,000km away in Nagpur’s Itwari, he says.
Three persons stroll into Shaikh’s humble outlet, not jaded by the scorcher outside or the flurry of numbers on the lottery pile. One of them carefully reads out numbers and hands out Rs 200 currency to him. He is Sanjeeb, a gold worker from Bengal’s Birbhum district, who makes it a point to buy lottery tickets from time to time. “It all depends on how much money I can spare,” he says. Sanjeeb buys only after carefully examining numbers, intuitively invoking his good luck deity.
“Our wages barely cross Rs 10,000 and expenses often exceed what we earn. So we hope against hope to get rich one day and keep buying lottery tickets,” says an elderly Tapan. “I know it’s the same company which gave electoral bonds to Didi’s party,” he says, referring to Future Gaming. Shabbir Ahmed, however, appeared shy as he says he just came out to chat, not buy a lucky charm.
“A year ago, a cop posted at Kalamna police station won a jackpot of Rs 1 crore. This was followed by a Bengali goldsmith, Sandeep. Soon, he shifted to his hometown Midnapore. And these back-to-back successes were a turning point in my lottery business,” he says. The local cop, who grew rich overnight, told TOI that he casually bought the ticket during a patrol duty at Itwari and won a crore. “I received Rs 70 lakh after deducting tax,” he said with a grin. In the same period, Dinesh Moharkar, a daily wager also won big. The vendor at Sakkardara who gave him the lucky number told TOI, he wasn’t aware of Moharkar’s whereabouts.
Shrikant Agrawal of Lottery Bhandar, one of the leading lottery stockists in Nagpur says Dear has the largest market share, followed by Maharashtra State Lottery. Dear, however, captured the market over the last four years. “The tickets come from the main distributor in Mumbai to stockists like us and we sell it to retail vendors,” he said. Agrawal agrees that most buyers are from the lower-income group.
The online lottery business briefly wound up in Maharashtra during the pandemic. “Business had become unviable after GST, and Covid-19 was the last nail in the coffin,” said Agarwal. Lottery attracts 28% GST which is borne by the distributor.
Surajit Mahato mans another shop in Itwari. “Some Bengali goldsmiths buy an entire book for Rs 150. The highest prize is Rs 1 crore. I don’t remember any of my buyers’ winning the amount,” he says. A worker hammering away on metal looked askance and said, “Baki log ticket kaat ta hain hum nahin (Others buy tickets, not me),” he said.
For Burdwan’s Zainul Shaikh who set up a lottery shop down the Sarafa lane two years ago, Bengali workers hoping to strike gold make up his loyal clientele.He sells Nagaland’s Dear lottery, which has a high demand in West Bengal and immigrants from the state don’t miss to buy it, he says.
“I would sell this lottery brand in Burdwan district of Bengal, but soon my business shrunk as numerous shops mushroomed. I shifted to Itwari in Nagpur along with other jewellery sculptors and Bengalis residing here bet their lives on Dear. And this keeps my business going,” says Zainul.
Dear lottery hogged the limelight recently not as a jackpot, but due to the controversy surrounding electoral bonds disclosed by State Bank of India. Lottery King Santiago Martin’s Future Gaming is the distributor of Dear lottery in Nagpur and other parts of Maharashtra. Its biggest market is in Bengal, but its influence straddles 1,000km away in Nagpur’s Itwari, he says.
Three persons stroll into Shaikh’s humble outlet, not jaded by the scorcher outside or the flurry of numbers on the lottery pile. One of them carefully reads out numbers and hands out Rs 200 currency to him. He is Sanjeeb, a gold worker from Bengal’s Birbhum district, who makes it a point to buy lottery tickets from time to time. “It all depends on how much money I can spare,” he says. Sanjeeb buys only after carefully examining numbers, intuitively invoking his good luck deity.
“Our wages barely cross Rs 10,000 and expenses often exceed what we earn. So we hope against hope to get rich one day and keep buying lottery tickets,” says an elderly Tapan. “I know it’s the same company which gave electoral bonds to Didi’s party,” he says, referring to Future Gaming. Shabbir Ahmed, however, appeared shy as he says he just came out to chat, not buy a lucky charm.
“A year ago, a cop posted at Kalamna police station won a jackpot of Rs 1 crore. This was followed by a Bengali goldsmith, Sandeep. Soon, he shifted to his hometown Midnapore. And these back-to-back successes were a turning point in my lottery business,” he says. The local cop, who grew rich overnight, told TOI that he casually bought the ticket during a patrol duty at Itwari and won a crore. “I received Rs 70 lakh after deducting tax,” he said with a grin. In the same period, Dinesh Moharkar, a daily wager also won big. The vendor at Sakkardara who gave him the lucky number told TOI, he wasn’t aware of Moharkar’s whereabouts.
Shrikant Agrawal of Lottery Bhandar, one of the leading lottery stockists in Nagpur says Dear has the largest market share, followed by Maharashtra State Lottery. Dear, however, captured the market over the last four years. “The tickets come from the main distributor in Mumbai to stockists like us and we sell it to retail vendors,” he said. Agrawal agrees that most buyers are from the lower-income group.
The online lottery business briefly wound up in Maharashtra during the pandemic. “Business had become unviable after GST, and Covid-19 was the last nail in the coffin,” said Agarwal. Lottery attracts 28% GST which is borne by the distributor.
Surajit Mahato mans another shop in Itwari. “Some Bengali goldsmiths buy an entire book for Rs 150. The highest prize is Rs 1 crore. I don’t remember any of my buyers’ winning the amount,” he says. A worker hammering away on metal looked askance and said, “Baki log ticket kaat ta hain hum nahin (Others buy tickets, not me),” he said.
