by reciprocal arrangement with Star of Mysore

Mysore, Aug 14: The online lotteries, which make a very few rich while impoverishing hundreds and thousands, have hit the city again today as the organisers relaunched their operations throughout the State following High Court's verdict quashing the Government's ban on them.

The sale of Playwin tickets commenced at Mahesh Online Lotteries at Halladakeri at 11 am today after the agent resumed business after performing a puja and distributing sweets to the lottery enthusiasts.

Following reports in the media about the relaunching of Playwin lotteries, people started thronging the Centre since this morning.

The lottery agent told Star of Mysore that three draws will be held tonight at 8.40, 8.50 and 9 pm and the results will be announced soon.

Gururaj of NG Associates told Star of Mysore that the sale of tickets began this morning in 35 Centres belonging to him located in Mysore, Mandya, Kodagu and Tumkur districts.

Many Centres in city are yet to resume business as their electronic machines are yet to become operational.

Before the Government imposed ban during the regime of S.M. Krishna, 12 Centres were operating in city. They earned Rs. 80 lakh to Rs. 1 crore daily by way of selling tickets.

Deputy Director of Lotteries Satyanarayana, who spoke to Star of Mysore from Bangalore, that the Playwin has resumed business pending a case in Supreme Court, which has not stayed the High Court verdict. The petition of Karnataka Government challenging the verdict would come up for hearing on Sept. 8.

The company has remitted betting tax for a week to the Commercial Tax Department at the rate of Rs. 50,000 per draw. The company conducts four draws in a day, he added.

He said his department will be sending circulars today to the district-level officers asking them to monitor whether the local agents had fulfilled the requirements like licence from the local bodies and payment of professional tax.

The Playwin has relaunched its business with seven types of tickets with a slogan: "Karnataka, start dreaming".

The company's State Division Head Upendra Kulkarni told the media that business will be resumed in 250 Centres all over the State, 40 per cent of them in Bangalore alone.

It may be recalled here that the High Court while quashing the Government's ban, had stated that the Government could not treat paper lotteries and online lotteries differently. "If the Government wants to ban online lotteries, it should ban all kinds of lotteries", it said.

Later the State moved the Supreme Court. As the Supreme Court did not stay the High Court order, the online company has decided to resume its operations.

Ministers for Lotteries Ramachandra Gowda said that as the issue is in court, the State Government could not do anything at the moment. "We hope that the Supreme Court verdict will be in our favour", he said.

According to the Department of Lotteries, the State suffered a loss of Rs. 300 crore after online lotteries were banned. Playwin officials claim that they suffered a loss of over Rs. 1,500 crore in the last two years.