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Lottery
may never be the same again from 6 pm today.
The
Essel group promoted Super Lotto goes online at retail centres
across the country from this evening, with Sikkim Lottery
doing the honours initially. All 14 Indian states that legally
allow the sale of lotteries have geared up to cash in on
the growing online lottery business.
Playwin's
Super Lotto comes with a jackpot of Rs 20 million. Prizes
can be won from Rs 60 onwards after buying a ticket worth
Rs 10 in all states except in Sikkim, where the ticket is
priced at Rs 20. The country's first online "game of
fortune" is being plugged aggressively with free ticket
coupons for the first two days being supplied in ads in
major newspapers.
Super
Lotto claims complete transparency with computerisation
at every stage. The inaugural draw will be held on 29 March
at Gangtok and the results will be telecast live on Zee
TV. The tickets can be bought at 300 departmental stores,
grocery shops, ice-cream parlours, cyber cafes, apparel
shops, restaurants, electronic goods stores, chemists and
STD booths, each set up at a cost of Rs 300,000.
As
per the license agreements between Playwin and the state
governments, while the lotteries run on a virtual online
network, they will also have a tangible presence in the
form of actual tickets, which will have the number sequence
of tickets bought by customers. Twenty-one per cent of the
venture's profits go to the state, 50 per cent towards the
prize monies and 7-8 per cent towards the retail and distribution
network. Playwin's own share of the pie will be around 3-4
per cent of the sales, a part of which will be ploughed
into a trust promoted by the Essel group.
While
the paper lottery market in India currently stands at Rs
500,000 million, Playwin is investing around Rs 2000 million
in developing the online gaming infrastructure in four states
in the country in association with the state of the art
technology provider, US based International Lottery Totalizer
System (ILTS), which has installed such computerised wagering
systems worldwide in 18 countries.
In
addition to the state government audit, Ernst & Young too
will audit and validate the online lottery process, say
officials.
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