E & Y Is Security Auditor For Essels Lottery Venture

Essel group has appointed Ernst & Young (E&Y), the global professional accounting services firm, as business process advisors and security auditors for its online lottery venture, Playwin Infravest Private Ltd. The group plans to invest Rs 300 crore in the venture over the next 4-6 months. The group has recently bagged contracts for introducing online lotteries in Karnataka and Sikkim.

Playwin plans to set up 5,000 high-tech lottery terminals, based on the technology platform of the US-based International Lottery Totalisator System (ILTS), in 14 states during the first year.

Its operations are expected to commence in the first quarter of calendar year 2002 and E&Y will conduct periodic process and security audits until a year after launch.

R K Singh, chief executive officer, Playwin Infrawest, said: "We have appointed consultants for process design and consultation as this is important to create strong processes for transparency and credibility in this business." He added, "We chose E&Y for this because of its global experience in advising lottery and gaming companies."

E&Y will help Playwin to roll out processes for the front-, back-office, technology and third-party management. It will do a comprehensive evaluation of the security architecture and will also conduct security audit during the implementation. With its proprietary tools and methodologies, such as threat and vulnerability assessments and eSecurity architecture, E&Y will test Playwin's network and will also assist the company in bridging the gaps.

E&Y works with more than 50 lottery organisations worldwide such as Camlet Plc, Lotto GmBh, California State Lottery, the New Zealand Lotteries Commission and Dailydraw.com.