At exactly 3:00 PM on Sunday, June 22, 2025, a single ticket sold in Kattappana, Kerala, became the most talked-about piece of paper in the state — MY 856706 — and its holder walked away with ₹1 crore. The Samrudhi SM-8 weekly lottery draw, conducted at Gorky Bhavan Near Bakery Junction in Thiruvananthapuram, awarded over 6.5 lakh prizes in total, but only one person hit the jackpot. The winning ticket was sold by agent M Jakkir Hussain of Agency No. Y 2771, who’ll now receive 12% of the prize — ₹12 lakh — as commission, per Kerala’s long-standing rule. The draw, broadcast live on the Kerala Lottery Official YouTube channel, drew tens of thousands of viewers, many holding their breath as the numbers rolled out.

Who Won What — And Where

The second prize of ₹25 lakh went to ticket MO 307104, sold in Guruvayoor by agent Sajith K S of Agency R 7960. Third place, ₹5 lakh, was claimed by ticket MO 427780 from Kollam. But the real excitement wasn’t just in the top three. A cluster of 11 tickets — MN 856706, MO 856706, MP 856706, and so on up to MZ 856706 — each won ₹5,000 as consolation prizes. That’s right: the same last six digits, different prefixes, eleven winners. It’s a quirk of the system that makes people double-check their tickets, sometimes for hours, even if they know the odds are slim.

The 5th prize winners, each pocketing ₹2,000, were determined by the last four digits: 1875, 2776, 3263, 4225, 5316, and 8067. For the 6th prize — ₹1,000 — there were 30 different four-digit combos. And down the line, prizes of ₹500, ₹200, and ₹100 were scattered across hundreds of thousands of tickets. Altogether, the Kerala State Lotteries Department handed out Kerala State Lotteries Department’s biggest payout of the year so far: over ₹10.5 crore in total prizes.

How to Claim — And When

Here’s the thing: winning doesn’t mean instant cash. If you won less than ₹5,000, you can walk into any licensed lottery shop in Kerala and get paid on the spot. But if you scored ₹5,000 or more — like the ₹1 crore winner — you’ve got to do more than just smile. You need to visit a government lottery office or designated bank branch with your original ticket, a government-issued ID, and proof of address. The Kerala State Lotteries Department mandates that claims be submitted within 30 days. Miss that window? The money goes back into the prize pool for future draws. No exceptions.

“We’ve had cases where winners didn’t check their tickets for weeks,” said a senior official from the department, speaking on condition of anonymity. “One person found theirs in a jacket pocket after monsoon season. The ticket was damp. We still paid. But we had to verify it with the original print records.”

The Agent’s Cut — And Why It Matters

The 12% commission for agents isn’t just a perk — it’s the engine behind the system. In a state where lottery sales are deeply personal, agents aren’t just vendors; they’re trusted neighbors. In Kattappana, M Jakkir Hussain’s shop has been selling tickets for 18 years. Locals know him by name. When the Samrudhi SM-8 results came in, his phone rang nonstop. “People didn’t just call to ask if they won,” he told Mathrubhumi English. “They called to say thank you. Some cried.”

That emotional connection is why the lottery thrives — and why it’s so hard to regulate. Unlike casinos or online betting, Kerala’s state lottery feels like a community ritual. It’s sold in roadside stalls, grocery shops, and temple premises. Children buy tickets with pocket money. Grandparents save for weeks to play. And when someone wins, the whole neighborhood celebrates.

What’s Next — And What’s at Stake

The next draw, Samrudhi SM-9, is set for Sunday, June 29, 2025, again at Gorky Bhavan. The prize structure remains unchanged: ₹1 crore top prize, ₹25 lakh second, ₹5 lakh third. But the stakes feel higher than ever. With inflation pushing up daily costs, more people are turning to the lottery as a slim hope for financial breathing room. In 2024, Kerala sold over 1.2 billion lottery tickets — an average of 3.3 million per day. That’s more than the population of Switzerland.

Experts warn, though. “Lotteries aren’t investments,” says Dr. Anjali Menon, a behavioral economist at Cochin University. “They’re taxes on hope. But in a system with limited social safety nets, hope is a currency.”

The Kerala State Lotteries Department has maintained its integrity since 1967 — no scandals, no corruption allegations. Revenue from the lottery funds public health, education, and rural development. In 2024 alone, it contributed ₹1,800 crore to the state exchequer. That’s not chump change. It’s the cost of running a state-run safety net — paid for by people betting on luck.

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