Pattaya lottery vendors complained that if they don’t overcharge the public, they won’t make enough profit to survive.
Lottery sellers interviewed walking around the central part of the city, selling to tourists and Thais alike, all complained that the government’s successful campaign to ensure government tickets are sold at the legal 80-baht price has hurt them.
The lotto hawkers said they have to gouge the public in order to make a comfortable living. For example, they admitted that selling a set of five tickets for 700 baht is expensive, but they forced to do so, as it generates enough profit for them personally.
Loei native Oy, 62, said she has breast cancer and came to Pattaya to earn enough money for medical treatment. But now that the government stamped out the overpriced-lotto problem, mostly through opening up online sales channels, she making less than she used to.
Wittaya, 42, is a double amputee and has sold lotto tickets for a decade. The government, he complained, missed the point in its price-control campaign. Overpriced tickets were not the problem. The problem is middlemen who sell tickets to retailers like him.
The government should either reduce wholesale prices or raise the consumer price for tickets, he maintained.
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