 statement of objects and reasonsthe malpractices in the conduct of lotteries and its impact on the poorer sections of the society had been under scrutiny of the government for quite some time the continued prevalence of the popularity known single digit and instant lotteries and the temptation offered by them had proved to be the undoing of many families inspite of the guidelines issued by the central government from time to time as also the guidelines issued by the supreme court of india in the matter, the evil could not be totally eliminated and it was felt that a central legislation to regulate the conduct of lotteries was necessary to protect the interest of the gullible poor to tackle this evil, the lotteries (regulation) act, 1998 was enacted by parliament this act, besides imposing stipulations for conduct of lotteries in the country, banned single digit and pre-announced number lotteries 2 the lotteries (regulation) bill, 1998 was referred to the department related parliamentary committee on home affairs the said committee, after considering the matter in all its aspects, had strongly recommended to the government to come forward with a comprehensive bill, at the earliest, in consultation with all the state governments and the union territory administrations, imposing a complete ban on the lottery trade in the country the matter was debated at length in parliament when the said bill was taken up for consideration during the debate there was an overwhelming view in both houses of parliament in favour of banning the lotteries 3 the matter was also placed before the conference-of chief ministers held on the 27th november, 1998 in new delhi the general consensus in the conference was that lotteries should be statutorily banned 4, under the constitutional frame-work, parliament has legislative competence with regard to lotteries falling under entry 40 of list i (union list) of the seventh schedule to the constitution other types of lotteries fall under entry 34 of list ii (state list) of said schedule which is within the legislative competence of the state legislatures the bill, therefore, proposes to prohibit the central government, state government and any organisation controlled by such government from conducting, organising or promoting any lottery it also seeks to repeal the lotteries (regulation) act, 1998 5 the bill seeks to achieve the aforesaid objective lk advani new delhi, the 21st december, 1999