“It is perseverance which makes them win”

Rajesh Bhasin, chief financial officer, Playwin, talks about lottery-winning crorepatis

Parizaad Khan

How many crorepatis has Playwin created?

Playwin started in 2002 and since then, there have been 76 jackpot winners. Out of these, 64 people have won more than Rs2 crore. The biggest amount so far has been won by Jaiprakash Jaiswal, a Kolkata-based scrap dealer, who won Rs17.29 crore in 2006.

What do winners usually do with the money?

Most of the lottery winners have been from the lower economic strata, so the win changes their life overnight. I heard about a sweeper at Mumbai’s KEM Hospital who won about Rs2 crore in the lottery a few years ago. He has bought flats in Mumbai and two cars, one of which is a BMW. I have heard of others who have started businesses or bought multiple flats. Many have invested and lead a retired life. When they win the money, many say that they will give some portion of the money to charity, invest in their children’s education and buy a home.

Are they bothered by relatives for money?

Most of them change their mobile numbers and are not contactable after they get the money. Many do not like to publicize what they are doing with the winnings, as they are bothered for money by relatives and other people.

Are the winners’ people who buy lottery tickets regularly or are the tickets a one-off purchase?

I ask the winners this question, and most of them buy tickets week on week—two, three or even sometimes ten tickets a week, for a year or two years. It is perseverance which makes them win, but of course, there is some element of luck as well.

What are your weekly ticket sales?

We have the Saturday Super Lotto and the Thursday Super Lotto, for which the guaranteed prize money us Rs2 crore. There is also the Thunder Ball which happens every Tuesday and Fast Lotto games which take place twice a day. Sales for all these games is Rs70lakh to Rs1 crore every week.

Livemint.com

Millions on the Move

When we launched Playwin in 2002, avid gamers used to queue up to buy lotto tickets and the choice of games was limited to one primarily-the traditional lotto. When we launched Lotto, it was difficult for gamers not exposed to international gaming to understand a game that promised crores and where you could actually choose your number. It further helped that one could buy the ticket conveniently at many places in the country.

The industry and the technology both have leapfrogged since then. With third generation mobile phones and cutting edge application software, we virtually have the world in our palm.  Just push a button http://www.myplaywin.com/MobileApplications.aspx and you could start your journey to fun and riches. And now there are ten games including Thunderball, Fast lotto and Keno that promise to make you a millionaire many times over.

Playwin has taken the lead to offer the most interesting games backed by cutting-edge technology, that makes gaming a ‘rewarding’ experience in more ways that one!!

I will be writing on various new initiatives of Playwin, watch this space. In case, you have any suggestions, please do write in.

Let me end with a small joke that I picked up on the net.

A group from Chicago spent a weekend in Las Vegas. One of the men on that trip won $100,000. He didn’t want anyone to know about it, so he decided not to return with the others, but took a later plane home – arriving back 3 a.m. He immediately went out to the backyard of his house, dug a hole and planted the money in it. The following morning he walked outside and found only an empty hole. He noticed footsteps leading from the hole to the house next door, which was owned by a deaf-mute. On the same street lived a professor who understood sign language and was a friend of the deaf man. Grabbing his pistol, the enraged man went to awaken the professor and dragged him to the deaf man’s house. “You tell this guy that if he doesn’t give me back my $100,000 I’m going to kill him!” he screamed at the professor. The professor conveyed the message to his friend, and his friend replied in sign language, “I hid it in my backyard, underneath the cherry tree.”

The professor turned to the man with the gun and said, “He’s not going to tell you. He said he’d rather die first.”

Gurpreet Bakshi – VP Alternative Revenue