If you have ever searched for “when did shillong teer start”, you already know the simple answer feels slippery. Some people say it began centuries ago with the Khasi tribes. Others point to the 1950s, and some insist it all started in 1982, the year the government made it legal. All three answers are true in their own way, because Shillong Teer has more than one beginning. The sport is old, the betting is old, and the legal lottery is younger than many of its players.
This guide walks through the full timeline in order. You will learn how an ancient Khasi archery tradition picked up a betting habit in the early 20th century, how the game survived a ban and police raids, and how October 1, 1982 turned a street-level gamble into one of the most unusual legal lotteries in India. For today’s daily numbers, you can always check the All Teer Results homepage.
If you want background on the city itself, the Shillong page on Wikipedia covers its history as the capital of Meghalaya, and the Meghalaya government portal is the official source for state institutions.
When Did Shillong Teer Start: The Short Answer
Ask ten people in Shillong and you will get ten slightly different answers. Here is the version historians and journalists agree on most. Archery itself is a centuries-old Khasi tradition. Betting on archery contests began sometime in the early 20th century, grew through the 1950s, and the first written record of people betting on the game dates to 1952-53. The game took its present two-digit form in the late 1950s. It stayed underground through the 1960s and 1970s, when the police treated bookies as criminals. Then, on October 1, 1982, the Meghalaya government legalised it under the Meghalaya Amusements and Betting Tax (Amendment) Act, 1982.
So the shillong teer starting year depends on what you mean. The tradition started centuries ago. The betting started in the early 1900s. The legal lottery started in 1982. Most people who ask “when did shillong teer start” really want to know about the legal game, and for that the answer is 1982.
The Khasi Roots: Archery Before It Was a Lottery
Long before anyone bought a ticket, the bow was already sacred in the Khasi hills. The Khasis are one of the indigenous peoples of Meghalaya, and archery ran through their daily life like a thread through cloth. Young men learned to shoot bamboo bows as boys. Villages held friendly contests during festivals and celebrations. In some villages, the old form of archery is still practised with a much smaller target mounted on a stick, and a form of poetry called “phawar”, four lines composed on the spot, is used to rattle opponents.
A Tradition Older Than the Ticket
Teer itself is the Hindi word for “arrow”. In Shillong, though, the game has its own local names. Older residents remember it as “Thoh Tim” or “Thom Tim”, and it is also known locally as “Siat Khnam”. These names predate the modern lottery completely. They belong to the era when archery was pure sport and pure skill, a test of the eye and the arm with no money on the outcome.
Hunting, Warfare and Village Games
Historians of the region point out that Khasi archery was not invented for entertainment. Bows were tools of hunting and, in earlier times, of warfare between villages. The shift from weapon to sport happened gradually. Village contests became a way to settle pride, celebrate a harvest, or pass a festival afternoon. Spectators gathered. Honour was at stake. And where spectators gather and honour is at stake, someone eventually wants to put a stake of another kind on the result.
The Early 1900s: When Bets Joined the Bows
This is the chapter of the shillong teer timeline that lives mostly in memory rather than in documents. Sometime in the early 20th century, people around Shillong started placing bets on archery contests. Village and locality clubs held weekly archery competitions, and the crowds that came to watch began backing their favourites.
The early betting looked nothing like today’s lottery. One fascinating detail recorded by researchers is that the traditional concept of betting involved “Kwai”, betel nut and leaf, used as the stake during a competition. The game in this friendly form was called “KaRongbiria”, which means recreation. Money replaced betel nut slowly, as the contests grew bigger and the crowds grew hungrier for excitement.
Nobody can give you a teer lottery launch date for this period. It was not one launch. It was a habit that crept in year by year, village by village.
1952-53: The First Written Record of Teer Betting
If the early 1900s are mist, 1952-53 is the first hard date in the teer game beginning. A well-known report on the history of the sport, quoting Philip G Khongsngi, the president of the Khasi Hills Archery Sports Association, states that the first record of people betting on archery dates back to 1952-53.
What the 1952-53 Record Tells Us
Why does this date matter? Because it is the oldest point in time that anyone has actually documented. By 1952-53, the betting was organised enough to leave a trace. Clubs from different localities and villages in and around Shillong were holding regular archery contests. The bookies were there, the slips of paper were changing hands, and the police were beginning to notice.
The 1950s were a turning point in another way too. As the sport grew, archery clubs started competing against each other in a more organised fashion. The 12 active clubs of that era were governed by a body called the Archery Board Control, or ABC. That body is known today as the Khasi Hills Archery Sports Association, the same organisation that still oversees the game. The roots of today’s official setup reach all the way back to those club rivalries of the 1950s.
The Late 1950s: The Game Takes Its Present Form
There is one more date from this decade that matters enormously. According to detailed accounts of the game’s history, the competition evolved and took its present form only in the late 1950s, when a unique system of adapting the results to the requirements of gambling emerged.
Before this change, betting on archery worked like betting on any contest. You picked a winner. The late-1950s innovation was different and brilliant in its simplicity. Officials would count the arrows embedded in the target at the end of a round, and the last two digits of that count would become the “winning” number. To use an example only, not a real result: if 1,043 arrows hit the target, the winning number would be 43. Suddenly, 100 possible two-digit numbers were in play every round, from 00 to 99. That is the teer system we still know today, and it was born in the late 1950s, not in ancient times and not in 1982.
The Turbulent 1960s and 1970s
The late 1960s were when archery got really popular in Shillong. More clubs, bigger crowds, more money changing hands. And with popularity came trouble. The government of Assam, of which Meghalaya was then a part, wanted to ban the betting. Police were given the authority to arrest bookies. Competitions continued at various venues, but the betting went underground.
Popularity and the Ban Threat
Imagine the scene. It is 1969. Archers line up at the Polo Ground, the same ground in Shillong where the game is still played today. The crowds know the drill. Money changes hands in whispers instead of shouts. The bookies know they could be arrested. The players know the game could be fixed, because underground money invites the wrong kind of people. Accounts from that era describe fixing and musclemen controlling the scene, swindling ordinary players of their hard-earned money.
The Underground Years and the Dons
The 1970s were the darkest chapter of the shillong teer timeline. In that decade, the betting was illegal, and local strongmen ran the racket. Police crackdowns were frequent, and so was rigging. One account from the period describes how a local don from Mawlai would rig the game while the police tried their best to stamp it out. Honest archers shot honestly. Dishonest money bent the results. It was chaotic, and everyone knew it.
And yet the game refused to die. That stubborn survival is worth pausing over. When a game survives police raids, arrests and rigged results for two decades, it tells you the roots run deeper than money. The Khasi love of the bow kept the contests alive even when the betting around them was broken.
1972: A New State, A New Conversation
On the bigger map, 1972 changed everything for the region. Meghalaya was recognised as a separate state in 1972, and Shillong became its capital. For teer, statehood mattered because the game was now governed from Shillong rather than from distant Assam. The people making the rules were closer to the ground where the arrows flew.
After 1972, the Khasi Hills Archery Sports Association began negotiating with the new state government to legalise betting. The argument was practical. The police and the government had realised that stamping out the game was impossible. Regulation, they concluded, held more potential than prohibition. It still took a decade for the proposal to be approved, but the conversation that ended in 1982 began in the years right after statehood.
October 1, 1982: When Did Shillong Teer Start Legally
This is the teer legalisation year, the date every timeline circles in red. On October 1, 1982, the proposal to legalise teer betting was approved, and the game came under the Meghalaya Amusements and Betting Tax (Amendment) Act, 1982. Teer gambling had been banned until 1981. Since 1982, it has been regulated by that Act and conducted under the aegis of the Khasi Hills Archery Sports Association.
What the 1982 Act Changed
The Act did three big things. First, it made the game legal, ending thirty years of police raids. Second, it put the Khasi Hills Archery Sports Association formally in charge of the sport’s conduct. Third, it created a licensing and taxation system that turned street betting into state revenue. Every bookie now had to procure a license from the government before running operations. According to reports from the period, each counter had to obtain a yearly license and maintain a record of daily earnings, while also contributing a small daily amount toward the conduct of the sport, mainly the archers’ daily allowance.
Licenses, Counters and Taxes
The legalised game grew fast. Today the streets of Shillong are lined with betting counters. Estimates suggest up to 1,500 counters in Shillong alone and almost 5,000 across the state. By 2008-09, the state was earning Rs 115.5 lakh a year as revenue from the game, while the annual turnover, the total bets placed, could reach Rs 750 crore if bets from outside the state are included. Whatever you think of gambling, the 1982 Act turned an underground racket into one of the state’s most visible industries.
The Modern Era: 2018 and the Digital Age
The story did not stop in 1982. In 2018, the Meghalaya government introduced a new piece of legislation: the Meghalaya Regulation of the Game of Arrow Shooting and the Sale of Teer Tickets Act, 2018. This Act updated the rules for a new century, covering how arrow-shooting sessions are organised and how teer tickets are sold. It is the latest major milestone in the legal history of the game.
Meanwhile, the game went digital. Where players once crowded around a notice board to read the day’s numbers, they now check daily teer results on their phones within minutes. Results portals like this one carry the Shillong Teer result every day alongside games from Khanapara and other centres. The bamboo bow is ancient. The smartphone in the spectator’s hand is new. Teer holds both at once, and that is what makes its timeline so remarkable.
Quick Timeline: The Shillong Teer Starting Year at a Glance
For readers who want the dates in one place:
- Centuries ago: Khasi archery tradition takes root in the hills of Meghalaya
- Early 1900s: People begin placing bets on archery contests; Kwai (betel nut) used as stakes
- 1952-53: First written record of people betting on the game
- Late 1950s: The game takes its present form; the last-two-digits number system emerges
- Late 1960s: Archery betting gets hugely popular; Assam government moves to ban it
- 1970: The Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act prohibits most forms of gaming
- 1972: Meghalaya becomes a separate state; legalisation talks begin
- The 1970s: Underground years; police raids and rigged games
- 1981: The ban era ends
- October 1, 1982: Teer legalised under the Meghalaya Amusements and Betting Tax (Amendment) Act, 1982
- 2018: The Meghalaya Regulation of the Game of Arrow Shooting and the Sale of Teer Tickets Act, 2018
- 2020s: The digital era; results published online within minutes of each round
Frequently Asked Questions About the Shillong Teer Timeline
What is the shillong teer starting year?
It depends on what you mean by “start”. Archery as a Khasi tradition is centuries old. Betting on archery began in the early 20th century, with the first written record dating to 1952-53. The game took its present two-digit form in the late 1950s. The legal lottery began on October 1, 1982. Most timelines use 1982 as the official starting year.
Was teer legal before 1982?
No. Teer betting was illegal through the 1960s and 1970s, and the Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act, 1970 prohibited most forms of gaming. The game was banned until 1981. Police raided bookies and could arrest them. Legalisation came on October 1, 1982 with the Meghalaya Amusements and Betting Tax (Amendment) Act, 1982.
What does the word “teer” actually mean?
Teer is the Hindi word for “arrow”. In Shillong, the game also carries older local names. It was traditionally called “Thoh Tim” or “Thom Tim”, and it is known locally as “Siat Khnam”. All of these names connect the lottery back to its origin in Khasi archery.
Who runs Shillong Teer today?
The Khasi Hills Archery Sports Association oversees the game. It grew out of the Archery Board Control of the 1950s, which governed the 12 active archery clubs of that era. Today the association has 12 affiliate clubs, including clubs from Malki, Laitumkhrah and Mawlai, which take turns conducting the daily sessions. Licensed betting counters operate under government licenses and pay taxes to the state.
Where is Shillong Teer played?
The main venue is the Polo Ground in Shillong, where archers shoot at a cylindrical hay target each day. Traditional archery competitions without betting are also held there on Sundays and during festivals. Similar teer games are now played at other centres across Meghalaya and Assam, including Khanapara and Juwai.
Is teer played every day of the year?
Teer sessions are held daily except on Sundays and certain state holidays, following the traditional calendar observed by the archery association. On non-playing days, no results are declared.
How did the 1982 legalisation change the game?
Before 1982, the game was run by underground bookies, police raids were common, and results were sometimes rigged by local strongmen. After the Meghalaya Amusements and Betting Tax (Amendment) Act, 1982, every counter needed a government license, daily earnings had to be recorded, and a share of the proceeds went to the state and to the archers themselves. The game became transparent, taxed and publicly visible.
Final Words on When Shillong Teer Started
The timeline of Shillong Teer is really three timelines braided together. One is the timeline of Khasi archery, centuries old and still alive on village grounds. The second is the timeline of betting, which began quietly in the early 1900s and left its first written trace in 1952-53. The third is the timeline of the law, from the ban years of the 1970s to October 1, 1982, when Meghalaya gave the game a license and a rulebook.
If you take one date away from this guide, take 1982. That is when did shillong teer start as the legal, regulated lottery that millions follow today. Everything before it is the backstory, and it is a backstory worth knowing, because it explains why this game feels less like a lottery and more like a tradition that learned to count.
A quick note for players: teer is a legal lottery in Meghalaya, open to adults aged 18 and above only. Play responsibly, treat it as entertainment, and never stake money you cannot afford to lose.