Sandeep Dwivedy
Post News Network
Cuttack, May 10: The lottery business is flourishing in the Silver City, driven partly by greed and partly by debt.
“This is an addiction and is difficult to give up,” said a person who has been buying lottery tickets for the last two years.
This addiction is partly responsible for adding to the crime graph of the city, according to sources. “Once a person gets addicted to lotteries, he borrows money and the need to repay the debt often leads the person to committing crimes,” said Prasant Mohapatra, a resident of the Station Bazaar area.
Prasant’s elder brother was addicted to lottery and took a loan of Rs 25,000 from a loan shark. “We did not know about it. One day, some people came to our house and asked for the money. These people mean business and the Supreme Court guidelines on ways to deal with people who have taken loans do not apply to them,” he said.
The rate of interest charged by these people is also very high and also contributes to keeping people in debt for a long time, said Prasant. “They take advantage of the dire needs of a person,” he said.
“It is the collective greed of both the customers and those who run this illegal trade with absolute impunity that helps it flourish. As long as people do not realise that depending on luck is not the way to get rich, the business will continue to thrive,” said Biswa Bhushan Pradhan, a resident of Buxi Bazaar, who used to be addicted to lotteries.
“People believe that their fortunes can change without work. It is up to people to think of their families first,” he said.
The police have, however, been unable to curb this illegal activity. “Even if we arrest someone, nobody testifies against the accused,” said a senior police official, on condition of anonymity. Besides, only a few raids are conducted on the places where the lottery business is carried out.
Those in the lottery business said a lot of calculation is involved in buying tickets. “It is not as simple as buying a ticket and waiting to get lucky. Regulars buy a lot of tickets and calculate the chances of their winning a certain amount,” said a regular. The probability of winning has to be calculated and the need to make up for losses has to be factored in, said the regular.
