Essel group enters on-line lottery business

By Ramnath Subbu

MUMBAI, NOV. 25. The Essel group has made a foray into the lottery business through a new company, Playwin Infravest Pvt. Ltd., which has got the on-line agencies for the Sikkim and Karnataka government lotteries. The company has also tendered application for the Punjab and Maharashtra state lottery agencies.

Two subsidiaries of the Essel Group of companies - Tashi Dalek and Ultra Entertainment Solutions Pvt. Ltd. - were awarded the licence for Sikkim State lottery and Karnataka State lottery respectively. Playwin Infravest, promoted by the Essel group, which is the holding company, is putting up the infrastructure to introduce on-line lottery for the first time in the country.The company had bid for the Sikkim State lottery about three months ago and for the Karnataka State lottery about a month back.

The Indian off-line lottery system is a State run operation under the auspices of the Director of Lottery, Department of Finance. The Government lottery is a profit making venture and the market for this activity stands at Rs. 50,000 crores.

Mr. R. K. Singh, who relinquished his position as chief executive of Zee Telefilms to take over as CEO, Playwin Infravest, told The Hindu, ``Online lotteries will bring in a total change in the now prevailing lottery scenario by providing a transparent and secure lottery operation through a process which will create a new segment in the market by appealing to the middle and upper middle-income groups".

``States running off-line lotteries are now adopting on-line lotteries. Sikkim and Bhutan State lotteries are among the most popular. We are hopeful that the on-line market will grow to even 10 per cent of the off-line market which would be Rs. 5,000 crores," said Mr. Singh.

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