The Government Lottery Office (GLO) is considering using digital lotteries to prevent certain dealers from selling government tickets at inflated prices.
Assoc Prof Thanawat Polvichai, board member and spokesperson for the GLO, disclosed that the digital lottery option will be among those proposed to the board for consideration at a meeting on Thursday. The digital lottery is an alternative to printed lottery tickets that will be offered through a new online platform.
The GLO is also considering a lotto, pictorial lottery tickets, and two- and three-digit lottery tickets. However, the GLO assures that these changes will not impact existing registered vendors.
Assoc Prof Thanawat said Thailand lags behind a number of its neighbors, including Laos and Vietnam, which already hold digital lotteries. He explained that the board seeks to ensure that more of the 80-baht lottery tickets are sold at set prices, but competition between unregistered sellers to obtain physical lottery tickets from licensed dealers to sell via online platforms would drive the cost to over 80 baht.
He added that the COVID-19 situation has forced many people who have lost their jobs to become lottery vendors and that some of these unregistered dealers must purchase tickets at exorbitant prices. In recent years, these unregistered sales amounted to between 5% and 10% of the 100 million tickets generated, while the number of lottery dealers, both registered and unregistered, has doubled from about 200,000 in 2015 to 400,000 in 2021. (NNT)
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