Are you feeling lucky today?

Font Size

Print

Feedback

Email

Discuss

: Tickets can now be bought from a host of vendors, ranging from a local shop to retail showrooms,” says Amar Sinha of Playwin Lotteries. No wonder in just five years (2002-2007) the number of online terminals has increased from 3,000 (in 2002) to 1,00,000 (in 2007), according to Dr Fayaz.

Nearly all online terminals have now introduced smart cards. With this credit card, a player receives a 12-digit account number and a four-digit password with which he/she can play Lotto, Thunderball or Bingo even over the phone or Internet. The cards (Done Card, Itz & I Cash Card) are available across retail channels. “These are the largest transacted e-commerce suits in the country today,” claims Amar Sinha.

Plans are afoot in some states to make lottery tickets more attractive as collector’s items. The reverse side could also carry public service ads.

How they stack up

The fact that there is very little official data to come by proves this market is highly fragmented. The last official data pertains to a Reserve Bank of India report titled 'State Finances—A study of Budget 2002-03’—which estimated the size of the market at Rs 10,741 crore in 2002-2003.

The combined profit of the 11 states were reported to be 6.65% in 2001-2002. The highest profit, incidentally was posted by Meghalaya (93.96%), followed by Mizoram (93.5%) and the lowest by Goa (1.58%) and Haryana (0.19%). The extreme variance suggested two things: either, states like Meghalaya and Mizoram were fleecing their lottery players or that other states such as Haryana and Goa were running their business inefficiently. The four states that were estimated to have the biggest share in the market in 2001-2002 were:

* Punjab (USD 42 million).

* Maharashtra (USD 25 million).

* West Bengal (Online USD 1.7 million per day, paper USD 1.2 million per day)