Poor response to state lottery may cause postponement of mega draw of Rs 50 cr

SHILLONG, Nov 3: EasyLottery, India’s first fully digital lottery which promises a grand prize of Rs 50 crore for the mega draw on November 10, has failed to evoke excitement among citizens of Meghalaya.
“It is not easy to sell lottery tickets worth Rs 5,000 even after all our calculations. We expect the sale of the lottery tickets to pick up with the date of the first draw getting closer,” Commissioner and Secretary of Excise, Registration, Taxation and Stamps (ERTS), Pravin Bakshi told The Shillong Times.
He informed that they have fixed November 10 as the tentative date of the first draw adding that the target was to sell as many as 2.6 lakh tickets.
Bakshi said that if the sale of lottery tickets is not as per the target then the drawing date may have to be extended.
Replying to a query, he said that they are receiving regular updates on the sale of tickets.
“The exact figures on the number of lottery tickets sold will be available next week post festivities reconciliation,” Bakshi said.
Informing that the draw of the lottery ticket will be held live in Shillong, he said they have set up a dedicated server room with CCTV cameras and other essentials and the draw will be done in the presence of four independent judges.
He further informed that the draws for the digital online lottery shall be held as per the procedure prescribed in the rules of Director Meghalaya State Lottery in the presence of judges appointed by the government.
“The winner of the digital online lottery will be declared in the official gazette of Meghalaya,” he informed.
Bakshi said the result of the digital online lottery draw will be announced under the signature of the Director of Lotteries and will be released to the media.
Meanwhile, he informed that the government has tied up with a reputed Chennai-based firm  to run the online lottery even claiming that it is very transparent and quite similar to the digital online lottery in the U.S.
Asked about the revenue sharing model, Bakshi said he cannot share the information since it is classified.
“Access will be given to the Income Tax and GST departments. There are some clauses on the revenue sharing between state government, technology partner and financial partner,” he said.
Bakshi said the state government launched the digital online lottery with the sole purpose of generating revenue.