Bangalore, Oct 30: Facing attacks from political parties and sporadic ransacking of its terminals in Karnataka, Playwin today said its online lottery could not be blamed for farmers' suicides and welcomed any step to regulate lotteries. As political parties mounted pressure on government to ban online lottery citing suicides by farmers, Playwin CEO Sanjay Das said "there is not even a single instance of anybody committing suicide due to Playwin".
Playwin, he told reporters, had about 1100 terminals in Karnataka, of which about 700 were in Bangalore urban and rural districts and the remaining in district headquarters. Not more than 10 to 15 were in rural areas, he said.
Reports obtained by the state lottery director from police had clearly mentioned that online lottery was not the cause for suicides, he said, and also quoted three agricultural experts who attributed suicides to change in pattern of agriculture and cropping.
Bureau Report