How much does it take to ignite your luck?

Courtesy: Bhutan Telecom

Bhutan Telecom is conducting its lucky draw again. This time it’s to commemorate 50 years of Bhutan Telecom since its inception. The prizes range from iPhone 5 to iPad 4, Samsung Galaxy S4 and cash. There will be a total of 33 prizes in total. This sounds interesting! We all should give a try. The voting lines will remain open starting today (October 1) till December 15, 2013.

Anyone, who owns a mobile phone, can participate. Each time you vote, B-Mobile will deduct Nu.5 from your balance. It makes sense too – Nu. 5! But the terms and conditions continue;

•  Each lucky draw number is entitled to one (1) prize only; no number(s) shall win more than one prize

Okay that makes sense! But it goes further: 

• Customers sending more number of SMSs will have higher chances of winning

 Now that is where I find it confusing. That’s where most of the lucky draws, reality shows included, become messy. We understand it is business and marketing strategy, but a person might end up voting worth more than iPhone 5. That confuses me. What is the point of voting if one can buy it in the first place? I think only one vote should be allowed per number. That way every number – for BT says one number will get only one prize – that's fair chance of winning. If one number can win more than one prize, then it makes sense to vote many times - countless times.

According to National Statistical Bureau (NSB), a total of 479,517 Bhutanese subscribed to cellular phones by the end of 2011. And B-Mobile alone has a staggering figure of 3, 83,089 subscribers. Now assuming that 70% of its customers take part in the lucky draw, Bhutan Telecom would earn a substantial revenue (Nu. 1,436,584?). And this is only from one vote per customer.

This is why I find “Customers sending more number of SMS will have higher chances of winning” clause confusing. Bhutan’s economy is certainly not in its best shape we were told. And I find this a little off beat. 

But I will certainly send as an sms BT 50 to 1963 and stand a chance to be lucky!