Bhagyalakshmi lottery (aka Bhagyalaxmi lottery) is a fake online lottery that claims itself to be the most played daily online lottery in India. However, it’s not difficult to see why it’s nothing but a scam.
Please note that the Bhagyalakshmi lottery website has now been redirected to another domain – The Asian Lottery. That’s old wine in a new bottle, but still stale.
We’ve noticed the attempts that have been made to improve whatever was earlier available on the original site. However, it does not mean the lottery has been legitimized. It is still what it always was – a sham.
Why not check out the best lottery sites in India for December 2023 instead?
1. Lack of License
Every legit online lottery site is sure to have been licensed by a renowned regulatory authority.
For instance, the international lottery betting site Lottoland holds a license by the Gibraltar Gambling Commission while TheLotter, which is an independent international lottery concierge and betting service, carries a license from the Malta Gaming Authority.
The same cannot be said about Bhagyalakshmi Lottery and hence, The Asian Lottery. It has not been licensed by any regulatory authority, whatsoever. In other words, it is not genuine or trustworthy.
Now, this means if you run into any conflict, disagreement, or dispute with the site, no higher authority is liable or obliged to resolve it. If you understand the risks, you would surely avoid playing lotteries on such sites.
2. Illegal Lotteries and Operations
Like Bhagyalakshmi Lottery, The Asian Lottery, too, runs 6 lotteries, none of which are legal. We have listed the names along with the ticket prices and jackpots below.
- Opal – ₹100 (Jackpot – ₹10 lakhs)
- Topaz – ₹250 (Jackpot – ₹25 lakhs)
- Silver – ₹500 (Jackpot – ₹50 lakhs)
- Gold – ₹750 (Jackpot – ₹75 lakhs)
- Platinum – ₹1,000 (Jackpot – ₹1 crore)
- Diamond – ₹2,000 (Jackpot – ₹2 crores)
If you’ve ever played government lotteries in India, you’d know ticket prices are always cheap, no matter what. Also, the lottery schemes are regularly updated so the names are seldom constant.
Bhagyalakshmi lottery, on the other hand, has consistently conducted(?) these 6 draws, selling tickets at outrageous prices and never changing the prize structure or the name of the schemes.
These are supposed to be daily draws where you pick 6 numbers to try your luck. You can do it manually or ask the site to pick some numbers for you. This feature is similar to what we find on legit online lottery sites. So far so good.
But, who runs these lotteries?
There is no solid information on the site about the organizers or conductors of the draws. Although it claims the National lottery of sports council is the promoter of the company. However, there is no such council. The name itself sounds shady.
Since the information is dubious, the draws must be illegal, too. The site further claims that the draws are conducted under the ‘strict observation of four gazetted officers and one first-class magistrate by manual lottery number machines.’
We doubt how much of this is true because no third-party site or news portal has ever mentioned the involvement of any government official in any such draw.
Furthermore, the site particularly mentions that only those Indians (within the country or beyond) who can pay up in INR can play the lotteries. Also, the site does not have any other sister concern or partner website.
This proves that domains for Bhagyalakshmi Lottery as well as The Asian Lottery are owned by an Indian or a group of Indians and privately run. For players’ information, running private lotteries in India is illegal under the Lotteries (Regulation) Act 1998.
To cross-verify, we tried finding the owners of the domain. Bhagyalakshmi was hosted by a Mumbai-based organization called P.D.R Solutions FZC. The Asian Lottery, on the other hand, has been registered under the name of some Shiva Ji from Mumbai.
It is privately held, hence illegal.
We cover the topic of legality and online lottery extensively here: Is online lottery legal?
3. False Information
Against every lottery draw on its homepage, The Asian Lottery has a ‘how to play’ button, which leads to the same guide page with the same information.
At the very beginning of the write-up, the site mentions itself as a lottery ticket concierge service – one that buys physical tickets on your behalf and sends you a scanned copy.
This was also the case with the original Bhagyalakshmi Lottery website where it had mentioned that designated agents would purchase tickets on players' behalf from an authorized lottery outlet.
The problem is no such lotteries are drawn in India, so there is no existence of such lottery outlets. Furthermore, in the help section, both the sites have put contradictory statements where they have denied association with other partner websites.
Now, the very business model of a lottery concierge service provider pushes it to form associations with official lottery ticket sellers. Such service providers might operate independently, but their operations must still be legit and recognized by the organizers of the draws.
Neither Bhagyalakshmi Lottery nor The Asian Lottery can provide any information regarding the authenticity of their operations. It seems they don’t even know what business model they are following!
4. Association With Ingenico ePayment India Private Limited
We tried buying tickets to every lottery listed on the new site and all of them redirected us to the Ingenico Payment Gateway. If you haven’t heard of this Mumbai-based company before, we won’t be surprised.
Most people who did, have been harassed either for loans they never took or due to other monetary fraud. The association of Ingenico ePayment India Private Limited as the payments partner speaks volumes about the genuineness of these sites.
Of course, you would find your favorite payment modes, including Net Banking and UPI. But we’d recommend not to put in any money because eventually, it’s a scam.
We have a full segment about payment methods from legit sites in India that you may want to check out here.
5. No Winner
This is perhaps the biggest red flag. There are no winner stories on the site. We don’t know if anyone has ever won the Bhagyalakshmi Lottery or the new Asian Lottery. It’s hard to believe the genuineness of an online lottery site if it has produced no winners.
6. Wrong Information About Taxation
The new site says prize money payable to winners within tax limit (below 50000/-) shall not be deducted. However, as per the Indian taxation law, a TDS of 31.2% is deducted if lottery winnings exceed ₹10K. This contradiction shows the site isn’t to be trusted.
7. Grammatical Errors
For a website that runs lotteries and claims to be associated with some big shot National lottery of sports council, Bhagyalakshmi Lottery hasn’t quite worked on its grammar. In fact, it has simply copy-pasted all the mediocre content from its original site.
For instance, it still makes milliners instead of millionaires and its draws start from 4:00 pm and end with 6:00 pm. Its Claims Form asks for the amount own of the customer. More amusingly, its home page mentions what it does to be more successfull.
The list includes ‘sharper brand positioning,’ ‘effective marketing,’ ‘stronger profit margins,’ and everything other than lotteries. If you know, you know.
8. Weird Terms and Conditions
The new site says if you play a single lottery, you will be notified about all the lottery details via your email as well as SMS. However, if you play multiple lotteries, notifications will go only to your email.
Interestingly, the site further mentions that providing details about your mobile number is mandatory, but email isn’t. Who does that?
In fact, on its landing page for Terms and Conditions, there are no terms and conditions at all! The page is filled with half-baked ideas about the legality of lottery in India.
As if the claptrap weren’t enough, the site has even put funny trust seals in its footer. ‘Services Approved,’ but by whom? ‘Trusted Brand,’ says who? ‘Satisfaction Guaranteed,’ claims who?
Since it’s a lottery, the existence of a jackpot is a given. Why put a trust seal for it? The only thing we appreciate about Bhagyalakshmi Lottery’s newest site is the seal for preventing underage betting.
But this is not enough reason for players to trust the site.
Every legal lottery website would have some amount of social media presence. It would have at least a Twitter handle, if not a Facebook account.
The company would have a LinkedIn page, if not an Instagram account. Bhagyalakshmi Lotto’s presence on social media is absolutely nil, which brings us to our conclusion.
Let’s call a spade a spade. Bhagyalakshmi Lottery and The Asian Lottery are fake. Period.
If you really want to play legit lotteries online, try world lottos! We have listed the best international lottery sites where you can play them.
