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India's first online lottery ready for launch

BS Corporate Bureau

Playwin Infrawest, India's first on-line lottery, is being kicked off on March 5 from 6.00 pm.

The Rs 3-billion lottery venture, promoted by media sector player Subhash Chandra and Essel group, is set to go live from Tuesday evening with Sikkim state lottery's 'Super Lotto'. Sikkim will be the first state to launch online lottery.

The inaugural draw of 'Super Lotto' will be held on March 29 at Gangtok in Sikkim and the result will be telecast live on Zee TV.

The company has already installed 300 on-line playing terminals at retail centres across all the 14 lottery playing states. It is understood from company sources that each terminal has been installed at Rs 300,000 at retail outlets.

Through the playing terminals the participants get to choose their own six numbers and generate tickets for themselves at Rs 10.

Under the scheme, customers get to generate a ticket by choosing six number of their choices unlike the conventional system where they buy tickets with pre-defined numbers.

"It is launch on the ground. In order to give it a thundering start to the country's first game of fortune, Super Lotto can be played free on March 5 and March 6 at all retail centres in all lottery playing states. Consumers are offered once in a life-time opportunity for the first two days to participate in Super Lotto's jackpot of Rs 20 million," said Sanjay Das, chief executive officer, Playwin Infrawest.

According to Chandra, chairman of the Essel Group, "Online lottery is a huge business globally with a market size of around $125 billion. In the UK alone, where the National Lottery has been operating for the past seven years, has created more than a thousand millionaires. The highest ever single jackpot won on the National Lottery has been more than Rs 1.58 billion."

It is estimated that lottery industry in India is of the size of around $8-10 billion.

The prizes can be won in denominations ranging from Rs 60 onwards. Prizes within Rs 5,000 will be given immediately by the retailers to the players.

The draw is done automatically through a special draw machine that has been imported specifically by Playwin.

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