Mumbai:

Now players can play the Sikkim Super Lotto by choosing their lucky six numbers from 1 to 49 (each separated by a space, like LT 2 45 31 23 5 6) through SMS to Mobile Lotto number 7575. Every customer gets a return SMS confirming their chosen number, and one is also informed through SMS if they win.

Users are charged Rs 10 per game, which is the same as what is charged through Playwin terminals, plus Re 1.50 towards government levies (on operator), while they get billed for the SMS messages they send as per the policy of the Mobile Operator.

Playwin brings this facility of Sikkim Super Lotto on SMS in conjunction with Elabs, which has developed this unique concept of Mobile Lotto. Elabs is using its proprietary MOS Platform, a unique concept in which merchants, operators and subscribers are brought together to conduct various transactions. Elabs has also tied up with two of its associate companies, Xius India and Cibernet India, to implement this service.

Says Playwin CEO Sanjay Das: “The unique concept of Mobile Lotto, is a part of our distribution strategy, which enables and facilitates people to play, whenever they wish, by using their mobiles. Playwin online games essentially cater to the basic aspiration of people to get rich instantly, riding on the hope that luck will favour them. Hence we are giving our consumers yet another opportunity to try their luck through a quicker, faster and exciting feature of SMS.”

Adds Orange vice-president (corporate marketing) Sanjeev Vohra: “Orange is the first cellular network in the country to offer a lottery service on the mobile phone. This is another example of Hutchison’s innovativeness and the commitment to stay ahead of the market and to continuously expand the range of services that we make available to our subscribers.”

Says BPL Mobile chief business development officer Krishna Angara: “We are happy to be among the first to offer an engaging and entertaining game like Super Lotto on SMS. Today, with over 75 per cent of our subscriber base using SMS and with the popularity of the Playwin game in the market, we are confident that playing Lotto through mobilephones will become a craze amongst our base.”

This facility enables the company to reach out to a large section of the society, which was difficult to reach out to. Playwin Infravest, which is promoted by the Rs 4,500-crore Essel group, has been operational since March 2002. Through Playwin’s online lottery, a sweeping change has prevailed through the lottery scenario, which today is seen as transparent, credible, sophisticated, entertaining and tech-savvy.