Kerala's new lottery offers gold instead of cash

KOCHI: Everybody wants to beat the recessionary trend. Kerala's department of lotteries wants to utilise the people's preference to gold to cash in on the economic meltdown. The department has come up with a lottery that offers the winning ticket a prize in the form of gold coins instead of money.
"These days we see that people find more security in gold than in cash.Since the recessionary trend is likely to continue for some time, we thought a lottery ticket that offers prize in the form of gold would be an instant hit. That's the reason behind the `Kanakadhara Scheme','' a senior official attached to the lotteries department told TOI. He expects the government to clear the proposal soon so that it could be introduced by mid-December.
The department is tying up with State Bank of India for the scheme. SBI will distribute the gold coins to the winners. "We will only authenticate the winning ticket and forward it to the bank. Once the SBI distributes the prize, we will reimburse the cost later,'' the official explained. "SBI already sells gold. They see a permanent customer in us. So it is a kind of symbiotic arrangement,'' he said.
Tickets will be prized at Rs 20 and the first prize is 101 sovereigns and 51 sovereigns as second prize. The minimum prize will be a two gram gold coin and the lottery could be a monthly feature.