Lottery

A giant Mega Millions jackpot grew larger on Wednesday to an estimated USD 640 million after another drawing without a winner. No one won the lottery game's top prize on Tuesday night, making it 21 straight drawings without anyone matching all six numbers. The next drawing will be Friday night. The huge jackpot comes less than two months after the largest lottery prize ever, a USD 2.04 billion Powerball prize that was won on November 8 in California. So far, that big winner hasn't stepped forward to claim the prize. The reason for all the big prizes is simple long odds ensure there are few winners and the long streaks of lottery futility allow jackpots to grow ever larger week after week. The odds of winning a Mega Millions jackpot is one in 302.6 million. The advertised jackpot of USD 640 million is for a winner who opts to be paid with an annuity, doled out through annual payments over 29 years. Nearly all winners take the cash option, with for Friday's drawing will be an estim

Court's verdict earlier led to legislation brought out by Karnataka and Kerala being declared invalid

An auto-rickshaw driver, who was planning to go to Malaysia to work as a chef, on Sunday won the Rs 25 crore Onam bumper lottery in Kerala, just a day after his application for a loan of Rs 3 lakh was approved. Even more interesting is that Anoop, hailing from Sreevaraham here, bought the winning ticket -- TJ 750605 -- on Saturday. But it was not his first choice, he told media persons who were present at the agency where he had bought the ticket. He did not like the first ticket he chose, so he opted for a different one which turned out to be a winner, he said. Regarding the loan and his Malaysia trip, an ecstatic Anoop said, "The bank called today regarding the loan and I said I don't need it anymore. I will not be going to Malaysia either." He has been buying lottery tickets for the last 22 years and has won amounts ranging from a few hundreds to a maximum of Rs 5,000 in the past, Anoop said. "I was not expecting to win and therefore, I was not watching the lottery results on

West Bengal, a state with a flourishing lottery business, has been joined by Uttar Pradesh, where there is a lottery ban, to push for a 28 per cent GST for online skill gaming

The winners of online games will have to pay taxes at the rate of 30 per cent without any rebates or 25-30 per cent on taxes and the interest due

While being burdened by a major financial crisis, Mohammed Bava, 50, prayed for a little luck in his life and it came true.

The GoM will have to submit report by July 15 and then the Council will meet either on August 1 or in the first week of August, says FM Sitharaman

Briefing reporters about deliberations at the two-day meeting of the GST Council, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said finance and other ministers of 16 states spoke on the compensation issue

Under the scheme, the revenue department will conduct monthly lucky draws which will have one bumper prize, while there would be second and third prizes state wise

The revenue department notified the GST rate on supply of lotteries and amended its earlier Central Tax (Rate) notification

Winning amount may range from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1 crore

All the earlier decisions by the Council had been taken through consensus

Centre will push for single rate; Kerala wants to retain current dual structure

The rate for lottery tickets in Kerala, where the business is run by the state government, has been at 12%

Existing regulation inoperative with GST roll out; state was hoping for Rs 7k cr from levy in 2017

Castillo and his wife had the option of taking the $1 million prize or getting $1,000 a week for life