The US-based lottery company Golden Win Win Gaming Inc on Monday announced the launch of a new lottery venture in Phnom Penh.
The company plans to introduce a scratch-card game called “Pay Day.” Instant lottery tickets are a form of gambling new to most Cambodians, so Win Win is launching a television advertising campaign to set the craze in motion.
The company has already printed 1 million of the new tickets, and plans to sell each for $1. The scratch-cards will be sold at supermarkets, gas stations and special ticket booths around Phnom Penh; if the game proves popular, tickets also will be sold in the provinces.
Prizes will range from $1 to $2,000, and will be available to Cambodian nationals only, according to Frank Gardner, Win Win’s marketing director. The total prize fund is expected to be about $400,000, Gardner said.
“We believe that the game is well-priced for the market,” Win Win President Benjamin Perry said.
Perry told reporters that the company has already spent some $500,000 setting up operations in Cambodia, and has several more millions in the bank to back the project. The lottery company plans to employ more than 100 Cambodians over the coming months.
Golden Win Win Gaming Inc is based in Las Vegas, in the US state of Nevada, and already operates lotteries in 23 countries around the world. It also runs several Internet gambling Web sites.
“We are in China, we did different aspects of the game in Macau and the Philippines, and the company also hopes to operate this ticket lottery game in Vietnam and Laos,” Perry said.
Perry was quick to point out that “gaming” in his lottery has little in common with casino-based gambling—which is illegal for Cambodian citizens—as it guarantees numerous winners.
“Our game is designed to be part of a changing daily environment for the players, not a life-changing event,” Perry said.
