Won the Onam Bumper? What to Do in the First 24 Hours

If your Onam Bumper ticket has won, the first 24 hours are about protecting the ticket, not claiming the money. Check the number against the official result, write your name and signature on the back exactly as they appear on your Aadhaar, photograph both sides, and lock the original away. You have 90 days from the draw to claim, so there is no need to rush to an office, and no genuine official will ever ask you to pay a fee to release a prize.

• Key facts for the 2026 Onam Bumper
• What should you do in the first few hours?
• How do I claim my Kerala lottery winning prize?
• Should you tell anyone you won?
• What scams target new winners?

Key facts for the 2026 Onam Bumper

These details belong to the 2026 draw. The steps below apply to any Kerala lottery prize, any year. This article does not list winning numbers; always check those on the department's own result page.

Item	2026 draw
Official name	Thiruvonam Bumper, BR-111
Draw	26 September 2026, 2 pm, Thiruvananthapuram
Ticket price	Rs 500
First prize	Rs 30 crore
Claim window	90 days from the draw, so into late December 2026
Official results	lotteryagent.kerala.gov.in/result/public, and the Kerala Lottery official app

What should you do in the first few hours?

Do these in order, calmly. None of them costs anything, and none of them needs anyone else's help.

• Confirm the win on an official source. The Kerala State Lotteries Department publishes results on its own result page and in its official app, which can scan the QR code on a ticket. A WhatsApp forward or a YouTube stream is not confirmation.
• Sign the back. The department asks winners to write their name and signature on the reverse of the ticket as recorded on their Aadhaar card. Until it is signed, nothing on the ticket ties it to you.
• Photograph both sides, and keep the photos on your own phone. A photo is your record, not your proof. The physical ticket is what gets paid.
• Keep the original flat, dry and hidden. The department rejects damaged tickets, so do not fold it into a wallet, alter it or leave it where it can get wet.
• Do not post the ticket online. A clear photo of the number and barcode helps exactly one kind of person: someone planning a fake claim or a scam call to you.

How do I claim my Kerala lottery winning prize?

For any prize above Rs 10,000, the department's claim page asks for the original signed ticket, a Form V prize application, a passport-size photo, and self-attested copies of your bank passbook (showing the account number and IFSC), PAN card and Aadhaar card. Your Aadhaar and PAN must be linked. If you want to hand the ticket in through a bank rather than directly, you fill in the bank's details in the "if through bank" part of Form V. Joint winners add a notarised Form VI, and claimants from outside Kerala add a notarised Form VII. The Directorate of Kerala State Lotteries at Vikas Bhavan, Thiruvananthapuram handles the claims.

How are Kerala lottery winners paid? Into the bank account on the claim, after two deductions: the selling agent's commission and income tax. On a big prize those two together take a very large bite, which our take-home tax breakdown works through tier by tier. Only the highest prize a ticket wins is paid, not every prize it matches.

Should you tell anyone you won?

Think hard before you do. According to Onmanorama's reporting, the department does not reveal a winner's details without consent, and those details fall outside the Right to Information Act. At least one later bumper winner, the Rs 10 crore Pooja Bumper winner of November 2022, chose anonymity, reportedly because of what happened to Anoop, the Thiruvananthapuram autorickshaw driver who won the Rs 25 crore Onam Bumper in 2022 and said publicly that his family had to move house because of constant requests for money, from acquaintances and strangers alike. Tell the people you would trust with a key to your house, and nobody else until the money is in the bank and you have a plan.

Help with that plan has been offered before. The Lotteries Department set up a one-day financial management programme for winners with the Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation, covering safe long-term investment and tax; Finance Minister K N Balagopal announced it in the state budget, and Anoop was in its first batch in 2022. Ask the department whether it is still offered when you claim, and be wary of anyone who approaches you first with an investment idea.

What scams target new winners?

The moment word spreads, expect calls. Kerala Police warned in July 2026 that any request for a registration fee, processing charge, GST, tax clearance or security deposit before a prize is released is a scam. The department deducts income tax at source before paying out; no genuine official ever collects tax or fees from you before a prize is released. Anyone who has already paid should call the national cyber crime helpline, 1930, or report at cybercrime.gov.in. Our guide to spotting fake Kerala lottery tickets and prize scams covers the common tricks in detail, and our full Onam Bumper guide explains how the whole draw works. More explainers sit in our Kochi guides section.