By Mata Press Service

Vancouver based developer Royal Indian Raj International Corporation has acquired a 10 per cent stake in a lottery operation as part of its efforts to get into the India’s gambling industry.

Manoj Benjamin, Chairman and CEO of Royal Indian Raj International Corporation (RIRIC), stated, “While our core business is large scale residential, commercial and institutional development, we decided to invest in the lottery business through Global, enabling us to be in a position to ultimately bid on a national lottery for India.”

Global Lottery Corporation is hoping the partnership will allow it to ride Royal India Raj’s coattails in the Asian markets. The ‘Whole World Lottery Guide’ estimates that annual turnover for India is $8 billion, placing it in the world’s top six lottery nations. The company said there is no viable competitor in the market and has already   made key partnerships with Indian industrialists that are being developed on a State-by-State basis.

In Karnataka state, RIRIC partnered with the Khoday Group, the largest liquor distillers in India while  In Maharashtra state, RIRIC has entered into negotiations for partnership with the Ispat Group, the 8th largest steel-maker in the world and a 50% owner of Star TV with Rupert Murdoch in India.

“The excitement of the 6/49 format, large potential winnings and a media transparent computerized system places RIRIC in a position of great opportunity in one of the world’s fastest growth sectors located in one of the world’s largest nations.”

The Lotto plan is in line with the company’s fundamental philosophy of acting as a conduit of proven advanced technologies into India. The company said it will distinguish itself by providing a system which will be managed with integrity thus both protecting the consumers while managing the profits of the system, thereby paving the way for the infusion of funds into government programs needed to enhance healthcare, education, and other social programs.

The RIRIC consortium is in the position of introducing socially conscious lottery systems like Lotto 6/49/Power Ball to the nation of India.

The shared revenues from the lotteries enable the government to realize many social programs within its mandate that would otherwise be unaffordable, as they look to innovative means to fund government ministries.

Gambling remains largely frowned on by Indian society, although the country has long had a horseracing culture.  One media report said that in recent years, hotel chains have lobbied to change the law, pointing out that tourists often go instead to Nepal and Sri Lanka, where gambling is permitted.

The Lotto 6/49 plan also comes at a time when some Indian states like Goa are plunging headlong to make a grab for gambling dollars.

The Indian beach paradise is planning to allow 10 more floating casinos to operate offshore. There are also signs that Indian entrepreneurs are quietly eroding the strict Indian laws governing gaming. This month the inaugural Asian Poker Classic attracted a bevy of stars to Goa with a guaranteed US$1 million prize pool. The event marked poker’s arrival to the big time in India. RIRIC said the Indian nation has been closed to the idea of a computerized lottery in the past due to excessive fraud in the paper lottery schemes; the country is now open to the idea, due in part to the revenues that will be generated to support social causes.

Benjamin, a low-profile Indo-Canadian tycoon and recent inductee into “Business and Economy Magazine’s” 100 Most Influential People of 2007 List, hit the headlines a few years ago when he  embarked on what was described as Asia’s largest real estate development--a new C$3 billion Indian smart city located in an area three times the size of Stanley Park. The project was called Royal Garden City in Bangalore.

It is currently selling Phase I of the project in Bangalore. Phase II and III will hit the markets in Q2 of 2007 as will its Royal Garden Villas and Resorts Hyderabad development situated on 450 acres near the new Hyderabad International Airport.

The family-owned company has been quietly assembling large parcels of land in India and securing global contacts over the past decade. The Bangalore development is expected to cash in on the booming economy of Bangalore--the outsourcing capital of the world, overseas Indians returning home and the burgeoning middle-class in the subcontinent.

When completed, the Royal Garden City in Bangalore is expected to be the base for between 300,000 and 500,000 people who will live, work and play on 11.4 million square feet that will include 35,000 residential units, a central business district, an industrial district, an entertainment district, parks, restaurants, shopping, educational facilities, and civic amenities. The retail value of the proposed Internet-friendly city, which is to be located about 15 miles from downtown Bangalore and three miles from the new Bangalore International Airport, is expected to top US$9 billion when fully completed in 2015. The city is to have bungalows, townhouses and apartments in enclaves modeled after luxurious western subdivisions with names like “Venice”, “Hamptons” and “Soho”. Benjamin’s Royal Indian Raj recently got approval for Foreign Direct investments for the Bangalore project from the Indian government, which last year lifted restrictions on foreign ownership of land. Not much is in the public domain about the B
enjamins who have kept a low profile until recently. Manoj Benjamin was only seven when dad Collins Benjamin left India for Canada in 1969 and got into a variety of businesses in Atlantic Canada.

In 1970 he launched his career in real estate establishing Benjamin Real Estate in Dartmouth, N.S., Sinma Investments Ltd. in Halifax, N.S., Shammah Investments Ltd. in Dartmouth, N.S. and CarriageLane Fine Homes Ltd. in Vancouver, BC.

In the early 90s, as India beckoned foreign investors by opening up its economy, the Benjamins began thinking about Royal Indian Raj, which was to be a vehicle with a specific India focus.

Around this time the Benjamins moved to Vancouver where they developed several housing projects.

Royal Indian Raj was incorporated in 1999 in Nevada, U.S. It is now headquartered on Water Street in Vancouver and has offices in India and Britain.

Manoj Benjamin is listed on the company website as being a self-made millionaire by the time he was 24.