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Hindus are concerned at the reportedly alarmingly high rates of prize denials to the Hindu and Indo-American community by Georgia Lottery, and are urging Governor Nathan Deal to launch an investigation.
According to an review/analysis of the denial letters by Georgia’s largest newspaper Atlanta Journal-Constitution published on December 20 under the title—“Ga. lottery denies millions in prizes to winners of scratch-off games”— “People with the common last name Patel make up 23 percent of the denials”.
Patel is a popular surname of people of India descent, majority of whom trace their ancestry to its Gujarat state; where Mahatma Gandhi and India’s current Prime Minister Narendra Modi were also born.
Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, urged the Georgia Lottery to seriously and thoroughly relook into it policies and strictly adhere to its claimed “Values”, which include: “We are honest, trustworthy, respectful, fair, and ethical in all of our actions.”
Did not it appear quite bizarre, out of line and unfair that 23 percent of people denied prizes reportedly belonged to a common last name? Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, asked.
Rajan Zed suggested that it was time for Georgia Lottery to remind themselves of their stated “Values”: “Customer Centric – We are fanatical about customer service.”, “Integrity – We do the right thing.”, “We are flexible and learn from our mistakes.”, etc.
Headquartered in Atlanta, the Georgia Lottery, with net sales exceeding $67.5 billion, was created in November 1992. Currently it offers more than 100 scratcher games and has 12 draw, or computerized, games; and the lottery tickets are now being sold at approximately 8,600 authorized retailer locations in the state.
