Thiruvananthapuram: Ever refrained from buying a lottery ticket because you suspected it to be fake? Come January, and the Kerala government would issue lottery tickets with QR code that would help you confirm its authenticity.
A new mobile app would also be available as the upgrades are made. As soon as your purchase the ticket, you can scan the QR code using the app and find out if it's original.
Currently, the officials confirm if the winning ticket is original by checking the bar code on the ticket. With the arrival of the QR code, even the public would be able to find out the authenticity of the ticket.
A new software, Lottis, is being implemented for the parallel distribution of lottery tickets and for the sale of tickets from lottery offices.
(QR code or Quick Response code is a machine-readable optical label used for storing information that could be easily accessible to ascertain the authenticity, location and other details of the product.)
Demand for raising ticket price
Meanwhile, the lottery agents have opposed the demand of officials for hiking the ticket price.
At a recent meet called by the lottery director, the district-based officials pitched for raising the price of Rs 30-tickets to Rs 50. They pointed out that the number of tickets and the agents have been increasing all the while. And with the current number of officials, it was not possible to distribute tickets easily and therefore, the number of tickets have to be reduced. However, this would lead to a dip in revenue and to counter that the ticket price has to be increased, the officers contented.
However, the agents’ outfit opposed the call for increasing the ticket price and instead sought for more number of tickets. The issue is under the government's consideration.
The government had last year reduced the price of Rs 50 lotteries to Rs 30, fearing infiltration from the other state lotteries.
The government had made Rs 4,994 crore from the sale of lottery this financial year till September this year.