In Sri Lanka there is a surfeit of lotteries and millions of people purchase them with the hope of winning a prize.

Development Lottery, Vasana Sampatha, Mahajana Sampatha, Saturday Fortune, Jayaviru Sampatha, Supiri Vasana Sampatha, Govi Setha, etc are the fancy names given to these lotteries and they are drawn quite so frequently. But, none is the wiser as to who are the persons who win the prizes.

All that the public see is a photograph of Directors holding a cheque. In fairness to those millions of people who purchase these tickets daily hoping they will one day hit the jackpot, it must be made compulsory that the names and addresses of those who win prizes, say above fifty thousand rupees are published in newspapers.

Let there be transparency in these matters since millions of rupees are involved in lotteries.

The lottery system originated in Sri Lanka with the introduction of the Hospital Lottery in the 1950s, when a ticket was prized at 50 cents. Since then it has developed to a money spinning business for the state.
M. J. Abdeen
Colombo 3