The Kerala government on Tuesday cancelled the weekly lucky draw of various lotteries scheduled for this week, including the Periyar lottery which is scheduled for today.
The state's finance minister Thomas Issac said that this was in the wake of a recent order of the Kerala High Court, adding that the Kerala lottery would have only four draws every month, one in each week from September onwards. The minister said that money would be refunded for all the cancelled draws.
The High Court issued an order limiting the draws to a maximum of four in a month as the state was in the grip of lotteries from other states such as Sikkim and even from Bhutan.
Lotteries are the largest gambling spot in Kerala as hundreds of crores are siphoned off from the state annually. Fake lotteries and single digit lottery have demolished the credibility of draws.