Walayar: Kerala's jackpot junction, town of thousand dreams
Over 130 kiosks and countless street vendors are selling Kerala lotteries here making Walayar a dazzling world of dreams, risk, and relentless hope.
'You wouldn't see any other place in Kerala where so many stalls and street sellers are concentrated in one locality like in Walayar. Believe it or not, almost all the stalls in Walayar sell well over 500 tickets on a given day. The number crosses 1,000 each on Sundays, when people from Tamil Nadu come in huge numbers and purchase tickets for up to next 10 days,' says C Babu, district secretary of the All Kerala Lottery Traders Union, explaining the magnitude of the lottery trade in Walayar.
'Some believe in a few lucky numbers, many believe in particular weekdays while a huge number of buyers believe in ticket sets and books. The availability of books and sets is also a reason why people flock to Walayar,' Babu adds.
About 96 lakh tickets are printed for a day's sale by the Kerala government and above Rs 24 crore is distributed as lottery prizes. The maximum prizes are given in Rs 5000s which total Rs 9.72 crore.
'Those who come to Walayar always look for tickets in books (one book is 25 tickets) and sets (a set is 12 books). People generally buy one or two tickets, but in Walayar people generally buy 12 tickets in the same numbers (last four digits). They believe they will win the Rs-5000 prize if purchased in that style, and it has happened scores of times here also,' said a ticket seller in the Walayar Dam Road.
It's such a buzzling place that the service road of the National Highway and pocket roads are filled with two-wheelers and four-wheelers, majority of them bearing Tamil Nadu registration, but there isn't a proper grocery shop, garment shop or medical shop, vegetable shop or financial firm in Walayar. And whatever small shops are located there, all sell lottery tickets! There are a couple of small restaurants, tea shops and toddy shops where, too, you can see lottery tickets displayed for sale and they become empty as the lottery results are out.
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