Part of this Malamal Matka game was an enormous earthen pot (matka) loaded up with bits of paper that had numbers going from 0 to 9 composed on them. A seller would pull a chit from the pot to pronounce the triumphant numbers.
This was just the start. After some time, the chits were supplanted with playing a game of cards three of which were drawn for every player. Nonetheless, the name 'Matka' was held out of appreciation for the prevalence of the game.