Lottery fan spends Rs 18 lakh

THRISSUR: Aiming to get rich and provide a better life to his kin who are dependent on him, a 39-year-old headload worker from Punkunnam began buying lottery tickets since he was 17 and has so far spent over Rs 18 lakh.

However, 22 years down the line, V K Subramaniam is a frustrated man and regrets the money spent on lotteries.

He has so far won prize money worth Rs 2.48 lakh and has stopped purchasing tickets. He recently burnt about 600 kg of lottery tickets he had collected over the years.

Subramaniam said he started buying lottery tickets to help his family, comprising his widowed sister and her daughter and his late brother's wife and three daughters. He decided not to have a family of his own but to instead help those who are dependant on him, he said.

He funded his passion for lotteries with money earned as a headload worker. He purchased Kerala state lottery tickets worth over Rs 9.75 lakh, besides those of other state lotteries.

Though he spent over Rs 1 lakh on purchasing Kerala lottery tickets, he could only win Rs 100 as prize money. The biggest prize money he has won so far at one time is Rs 1,000.

He also purchased tickets of the Kerala government's Onam bumper lottery worth Rs 5,000 at the rate of Rs 100 a ticket.

Now all his hopes are on the 11th NKL Lottery ticket of Germany, priced at 225 euros a ticket. The draws are to be held from April 1 to September 30 for prize money of 6,36,80,000 euros, he said.

Subramaniam's other passion is cinema and seeing his hero Mamooty's films innumerable times.