Of SMS and Lottery.

We all know about lottery tickets. You buy them and hope that you become a lakhpati (millionaire) instantly. In almost all cases, you end up winning nothing. And then, in a fit of rage and disappointment, you either stop buying them or you continue to buy more in hope of better days ahead. The rare winners are then projected as smart people who conquered their financial misery through the roll of dice. The charity aspect is also thrown in with the ads showing how the lottery earnings are used for social welfare. Almost like robbing people of their meagre savings and then distributing a pittance to become a robinhood. The true smart ones realize the futility of this sophisticated loot and stop indulging.

As if lottery was not enough, we have more intelligent and subtle form of techo-savvy loot. There are SMS contests are thrown in, in almost all TV/radio shows. The objective is simple. To keep sending SMS, the very same SMS again and again. So we have a leading radio channel that gives bikes, cars and home theaters to winners. And the participant has to keep sending the same SMS again and again for a simple question till the pre-paid limit is exhausted or the post-paid connection cut because the credit limit has been overshot. The subtle details like the special SMS costing Rs. 4/- instead of the commonly understood Re 1/- are ignored. Such details are too trivial for being advertised.

The example above is not isolated instance. There are other shows where unique bids are to be sent (the lower bid wins and not the higher bid). I dont know the details but I see something fishy. Obviously there will be one winner. The winner who will get a fraction of the cost borne by the gullible participants. And the majority of the profit being cornered by the persons-in-charge.

One fine day I reported the issue to the regulator TRAI but to no avail. And then I realize that is this not just another form of lottery. The only difference is that you do not know the cost of the ticket. Or even worse, you dont even know that this is indeed a lottery. In the garb of a contest, the loot is on - that too in the broad day light .....

chachu
17-Jul-2006.