An illegal gambling racket built on the winning numbers of the state lottery boards has grown into a social crisis second in severity only to drug abuse, National Lotteries Board (NLB) Chairman Cyril Anthony Perera has told the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE).
Perera raised the issue when officials of the NLB and the Development Lotteries Board were summoned before the committee’s subcommittee, chaired by MP Dinesh Hemantha. The matter came up during discussion of the board’s efforts to curb illegal lottery-related activity, after Auditor General officials noted that legislative reform had already been identified as a necessary step and asked what progress had been made.
How the racket works
Under the scheme — known as Kotu Kepima, and also described as “number cross cutting” or “box cutting” — bettors select two numbers between 0 and 9 and stake money on the final two digits of the lottery number drawn that day. Although both boards hold their draws at around 7.30 p.m., operators run the betting through WhatsApp groups and spread false claims that the month’s draws are conducted in advance and released daily, Perera said.
Some operators tell participants they already know the final two digits of a coming draw and charge around Rs. 2,000 for the information, he said.
The practice began in villages around four to five years ago with stakes of about Rs. 100, but has since expanded sharply. In some higher-income areas the value of a single betting box has reportedly risen to as much as Rs. 100,000.
Stakes track local economic activity. In paddy-farming areas such as Manampitiya, bets on a single number combination can reach Rs. 30,000 during harvesting season, while in the gem-mining district of Ratnapura they can exceed Rs. 100,000. Communities in Badalkumbura and parts of the Eastern Province are also heavily exposed, Perera said.
Complaints to police went nowhere
Perera said the racket had driven many people to lose their land and other property, leaving them in severe financial difficulty, and that the NLB had received repeated complaints from women affected by their husbands’ addiction to the betting.
“Some wives tell us that their husbands no longer even spend money on their usual evening habits. Every rupee is going into gambling instead,” he told the committee.
Complaints had previously been lodged with the Inspector General of Police, the State Intelligence Service and several other law enforcement bodies, he said, but no effective action had followed.
A gap in the law
The board’s enforcement powers are narrow. Perera said the NLB can act under existing legislation only where its official lottery products are directly imitated or manipulated, while the betting model itself operates in a legal grey area the current law does not reach.
Cabinet approval has already been granted for amendments to the governing legislation, board officials told the committee. A draft prepared by the Legal Draftsman’s Department has been received and the board’s observations on it forwarded to the relevant ministry.
Perera said the practice could not be legalised, absorbed into official lottery operations or left alone, and called for legislative action and stronger enforcement. The chairman warned that the continued spread of the operation threatens both the financial sustainability of the country’s lottery boards and the livelihoods of ordinary people.
