Limits on 80-baht lotto tickets, sold at provincial halls only

[Lite Beer]

Limits on 80-baht lotto tickets, sold at provincial halls only

BANGKOK: -- Government lottery tickets at the official price of 80 baht a pair became available on Friday at the Government Lottery Office (GLO) and provincial halls across the country.

However, authorities admit they have yet to figure out a way to enforce the 80-baht price nationwide, given the difficulty of dismantling the entrenched network of profiteering wholesalers and middlemen.

The public has complained for years about overpriced lottery tickets but successive governments did nothing. Now the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) is attempting to flex its muscle to challenge the system.

The GLO sells lottery tickets to wholesalers for 74.4 baht but typically they go through several sets of hands, to the point where vendors have had to charge an average of 110 baht a pair just to cover their own costs.

Somchai Sujjapongse, the new GLO chairman, said on Friday that while some tickets could be made available at 80 baht a pair, the prices of tickets elsewhere were still controlled by "market mechanisms" for the time being.

Mr Somchai noted that authorities had to approach a solution carefully because the issue was sensitive and involved a large amount of people.

Therefore, authorities for now would remain lenient about the market prices of lottery tickets, he said.

The vendors selling tickets at the official 80-baht price were receiving them directly from provincial governors and provincial finance chiefs, Mr Somchai explained.

Buyers at the provincial halls in Mukdahan, Phatthalung and Sa Kaeo responded enthusiastically to the change.

Some said it was the first time that they could buy tickets at 80 baht a pair as vendors normally charged 100 to 110 baht or even 120 baht per pair of tickets with a same number.

At the Aranyaprathet border checkpoint in Sa Kaeo, lottery vendors had virtually disappeared. Previously about 100 vendors from Loei province were regular fixtures at the border checkpoint.

One vendor said that most of them did not dare to buy tickets from wholesalers for the next draw because they feared losses in case they were required to adhere to the official price.

The vendor said they normally had to buy tickets from wholesalers at more than 90 baht per pair.

-- Phuket News 2014-07-06

[terryp]

for pitys sake get into the year 2014..tickets should be sold via the systems in the West via 7/11 type shops etc ..people roaming the streets ripping people off is just idiotic...but this is Thailand yet again

[robblok]

They can do it they just don't have the balls for it. First cut out the middle man and make one agency responsible for all the sales. This way everyone can buy them at cheap rates. Make sure that people cant buy more as a certain number of tickets and be done with it. They will just have to break the middle man so the normal sellers can make their profit.

[fab4]

for pitys sake get into the year 2014..tickets should be sold via the systems in the West via 7/11 type shops etc ..people roaming the streets ripping people off is just idiotic...but this is Thailand yet again

What about the disabled people who sell Lottery tickets to supplement or provide their only income? They have already been affected by this decision,a decision that the junta, in their haste towards populism, has obviously not thought through properly.

Mr Udorn Wong-onsanit, representing the blind and disabled lottery vendors, asked the Government Lottery Office to allocate more lottery tickets – up to six books or 600 tickets for each vendor – for each draw and to allow the vendors to sell tickets above the 80 baht price for the July 1 draw because all of them have already paid higher prices to buy the lottery from the dealers.

Mrs Look-in Meemongkol, one of the vendors, said that she was allotted with only 200 tickets from the provincial administration at a price of 75 baht per ticket. However, she had to acquire more tickets from the free agents who charged her 93 baht a ticket.

http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/lottery-vendors-seek-help-ncpo/

[lostsoul49]

However, authorities admit they have yet to figure out a way to enforce the 80-baht price nationwide, given the difficulty of dismantling the entrenched network of profiteering wholesalers and middlemen.

Simple... Just set up a public hotline to report over-pricing and hand out huge fines. Allow the vendors to directly report their supplier. Once the profits are slashed throughout the supply chain the network will dismantle itself.

This country needs a lot of western consultants if they can't figure these simple problems out.

[robblok]

for pitys sake get into the year 2014..tickets should be sold via the systems in the West via 7/11 type shops etc ..people roaming the streets ripping people off is just idiotic...but this is Thailand yet again

What about the disabled people who sell Lottery tickets to supplement or provide their only income? They have already been affected by this decision,a decision that the junta, in their haste towards populism, has obviously not thought through properly.

Mr Udorn Wong-onsanit, representing the blind and disabled lottery vendors, asked the Government Lottery Office to allocate more lottery tickets – up to six books or 600 tickets for each vendor – for each draw and to allow the vendors to sell tickets above the 80 baht price for the July 1 draw because all of them have already paid higher prices to buy the lottery from the dealers.

Mrs Look-in Meemongkol, one of the vendors, said that she was allotted with only 200 tickets from the provincial administration at a price of 75 baht per ticket. However, she had to acquire more tickets from the free agents who charged her 93 baht a ticket.

http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/lottery-vendors-seek-help-ncpo/

Agree.. take out the middle man.. make sure people can only buy a certain amount of tickets. Make the tickets only available for the sellers at certain places.

Then the blind can sell their stuff and make the profit they deserve.

Now its just some fat cats getting fatter.

Just register vendors and make them come personally to pick it up (else you get proxies and the fat cats still get the tickets)

[Thailand]

Not turning out to be quite so popular as was first thought. Never really looked practical.

Affecting the incomes of thousands of ordinary Thai's.

[robblok]

Not turning out to be quite so popular as was first thought. Never really looked practical.

Affecting the incomes of thousands of ordinary Thai's.

It will take some time to work out .. its a real good idea

It affect the income of ordinary Thais but on the other side affects the spending of ordinary Thais too.

They just need to get tougher on middle men and reshape the allotment of tickets.

If I can figure it out Thais can too, it just takes some guts to go after the fat cats.

[Lite Beer]

2 mn more lotteries to be issued for disabled

BANGKOK, 6 July 2014 (NNT) - The Government Lottery Office (GLO) will publish two million more lotteries per round starting next month for disabled lottery vendors.

Around 100,000 disabled people have notified the GLO of their intention to sell lotteries since the beginning of 2014. The GLO will therefore publish two million more lotteries (40 baht apiece) per round, starting from the 1 August 2014 round, for them.

The GLO will sort the disabled people randomly on 7 July 2014 at its head office and will announce the results later.

The amount of lotteries per round will increase from 74 million to 72 million—52 million of which will be government lotteries and the rest charity lotteries. The GLO has confirmed the lottery increase is in line with the GLO board's policy and it is transparent throughout the process.

-- NNT 2014-07-06

[Pib]

A lot, repeat a lot, of disabled and poor make their living from selling lottery tickets. How to cut out the middleman or greatly reduce the middleman costs is probably going to be a tough nut to crack. It just won't be workable for the govt to say something like "everyone can just come to the provincial office to get their allotment of tickets" because a provincial office could be an hour or two drive away....how will the disabled in their wheelchairs and poor on their bicycles" get to that provincial hall twice a month for tickets. Just how the govt is going to revamp the lottery ticket distribution plan without impacting the disabled/poor is probably going to be a tough nut to crack.

[Thai at Heart]

for pitys sake get into the year 2014..tickets should be sold via the systems in the West via 7/11 type shops etc ..people roaming the streets ripping people off is just idiotic...but this is Thailand yet again

What about the disabled people who sell Lottery tickets to supplement or provide their only income? They have already been affected by this decision,a decision that the junta, in their haste towards populism, has obviously not thought through properly.

Mr Udorn Wong-onsanit, representing the blind and disabled lottery vendors, asked the Government Lottery Office to allocate more lottery tickets up to six books or 600 tickets for each vendor for each draw and to allow the vendors to sell tickets above the 80 baht price for the July 1 draw because all of them have already paid higher prices to buy the lottery from the dealers.

Mrs Look-in Meemongkol, one of the vendors, said that she was allotted with only 200 tickets from the provincial administration at a price of 75 baht per ticket. However, she had to acquire more tickets from the free agents who charged her 93 baht a ticket.

http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/lottery-vendors-seek-help-ncpo/

Uhhhhh? Pay them a disability benefit? Is this system much different from using child beggars?

[tomyummer]

The country can't even control the lottery system. And the pathetic thing is that the people accepted this all these years. Perfect reflection of the Thai culture and society.

[clockman]

Stealing from the poor and disabled! T.I.T. And all good Buddhists.

[hotrod4098]

why are 2 numbers the same...ie a pair at 100 in pattaya..

[kriswillems]

The plan totally failed.

Populist decisions can't be enforced unless you use unpopular ways to enforce them.

I haven't even seen one seller that sells tickets for 80B. And the police - they do nothing - and right so. I think a jail is not a place for the old, blind and handicapped people.

Even if you take out the middle man, nobody is going to sell tickets for 6 baht profit per ticket. The profit margin is just too low and it doesn't cover the transportation costs and the money lost on unsold tickets.

I think this is the first good lesson for the new leaders. It's not because you make quick populist decisions, the result will be good.

[dddave]

A similar situation has always confused me:

An individual who stands in line for hours and spends his own money to buy 20 tickets to an event; say a Rock concert or a football game and then attempts to sell them on the street for a profit is declared a "Scalper"; a loathsome, parasitic, pimple on the ass of society while concurrently, big corporations like TICKETMASTER and other major brokers can buy up entire events and charge huge premiums and fees and be declared good corporate citizens.

The older women I see in the neighborhoods of Bangkok, wearing plaid shirts and jingling a bicycle bell are the ones who will be hurt by all this. The Govt. will continue to get it's share and the brokers will find a way to keep theirs.

Here, just like everyplace; "sh*t rolls down hill."

[chiang mai]

for pitys sake get into the year 2014..tickets should be sold via the systems in the West via 7/11 type shops etc ..people roaming the streets ripping people off is just idiotic...but this is Thailand yet again

You need to understand that selling lottery tickets in Thailand is one of the very few jobs open to disabled people, people who spend their lives in wheelchairs, limbs lost through stepping on landmines. There is no disability program here such as in your country, if people don't work they starve and die, automating the lottery system, my young IT techie, is definitely not the way to go.

[thaipod]

If you read Spectrum today the odds of winning is just about nill, 72 mllion tickets released each draw and a 2 million 1st prize .

The whole thing is controlled by 5-6 buyers (tigers)who purchase 65 percent and the distributed to the middle man and then sold a couple of times again.

[chiang mai]

If you read Spectrum today the odds of winning is just about nill, 72 mllion tickets released each draw and a 2 million 1st prize .

The whole thing is controlled by 5-6 buyers (tigers)who purchase 65 percent and the distributed to the middle man and then sold a couple of times again.

It doesn't matter how many people win, what matters is that huge numbers of disabled people derive a living from the scheme - the middlemen, that's another story entirely.

[Valentine]

If you read Spectrum today the odds of winning is just about nill, 72 mllion tickets released each draw and a 2 million 1st prize .

The whole thing is controlled by 5-6 buyers (tigers)who purchase 65 percent and the distributed to the middle man and then sold a couple of times again.

You should try buying a ticket sometime & you will see they have multiples of the same number which must be about 72 as there are 6 numbers on a ticket (not sure of my maths but sounds right) plus there are about 200 prizes. Today at the shopping centre tickets were selling for 90 Baht whereas a week or so ago they were 100 Baht so hopefully this is a sign the bottom feeding middlemen are being cut out of their lucrative loop for which they do practically nothing or at the very least they are having to reduce their margins.

Edited July 6, 2014 by Valentine

[tingtongteesood]

Some problems can't be solved immediately. Give them a few weeks I am sure it will get better. Army still gets a big thumbs off so far, they have performed miracles already. We are getting too used to it, they can't give us a new miracle every day.

[JohnThailandJohn]

Keep it as it is -- it employees a lot of handicapped people who would have trouble working other jobs and as for the price ... let the market dictate price. Besides, if 20 or 30 baht is that important then you shouldn't be gambling anyway and just like many things, you can shop around to get the lowest price.

[djjamie]

for pitys sake get into the year 2014..tickets should be sold via the systems in the West via 7/11 type shops etc ..people roaming the streets ripping people off is just idiotic...but this is Thailand yet again

What about the disabled people who sell Lottery tickets to supplement or provide their only income? They have already been affected by this decision,a decision that the junta, in their haste towards populism, has obviously not thought through properly.

Mr Udorn Wong-onsanit, representing the blind and disabled lottery vendors, asked the Government Lottery Office to allocate more lottery tickets – up to six books or 600 tickets for each vendor – for each draw and to allow the vendors to sell tickets above the 80 baht price for the July 1 draw because all of them have already paid higher prices to buy the lottery from the dealers.

Mrs Look-in Meemongkol, one of the vendors, said that she was allotted with only 200 tickets from the provincial administration at a price of 75 baht per ticket. However, she had to acquire more tickets from the free agents who charged her 93 baht a ticket.

http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/lottery-vendors-seek-help-ncpo/

What about the disabled people who sell Lottery tickets to supplement or provide their only income?

It is appreciated by me when you bring some informative context to the forum and I for one thank you for this. You have made a very good point Fab4.

This is the only income for some and just as disabled people in the West don't rely on selling lottery tickets because there is a pension support scheme maybe this pension scheme is something that can be addressed at the Junta reform meetings. If we are going to cleanse the system and reform for the better then lets go whole hog. Lets help these disabled folk and I am sure the General will be very receptive to this idea.

I know I am on your "ignore" list (which is the highest honor you can give me because it means you don't want to face my inconvenient truths) but this is more a post to add to the forum and offer ideas about what reconciliation means. It means not looking at the negatives, but turning any negatives into positives and appreciating and embracing the reform process to make this happen in Thailand and in this case helping the disabled folk.

Embrace the opportunity to reform Thailand.

Thanks again Fab4 and keep up the good work mate.

Edited July 6, 2014 by djjamie

[reiltin]

Mr Somchai noted that authorities had to approach a solution carefully because the issue was sensitive and involved a large amount of people.....and the other large amount of people-the general public(presumably less sensitive...) don't figure at all

[ksamuiguy]

I have never seen an obviously disabled person selling lottery tickets ?

[chiang mai]

I have never seen an obviously disabled person selling lottery tickets ?

You may well not, on Samui. But in the real Thailand they exist in the thousands. There's 1.2 million disabled people in Thailand and according to the paper that cannot be named, at least 70,000 sell lottery tickets - google disabled lottery tickets sellers thailand.

[TommyUK1960]

It would be a move forward if they had some accountability especially releasing information how many prizes had been won each week. This lotto could go on years without anyone claiming a main prize and no one would no.

The only big prize that I see was a Pattaya taxi driver got about 20m, it was a long time ago.

[pon0007]

why are 2 numbers the same...ie a pair at 100 in pattaya..

110 baht is very cheap for me . I don't understand why people can't buy it at this cost . You guy should work hard and save money for your future. It better than collecting paper .

[pon0007]

why are 2 numbers the same...ie a pair at 100 in pattaya..

110 baht is very cheap for me . I don't understand why people can't buy it at this cost . You guy should work hard and save money for your future. It better than collecting paper .

[cougar52]

If you read Spectrum today the odds of winning is just about nill, 72 mllion tickets released each draw and a 2 million 1st prize .

The whole thing is controlled by 5-6 buyers (tigers)who purchase 65 percent and the distributed to the middle man and then sold a couple of times again.

You should try buying a ticket sometime & you will see they have multiples of the same number which must be about 72 as there are 6 numbers on a ticket (not sure of my maths but sounds right) plus there are about 200 prizes. Today at the shopping centre tickets were selling for 90 Baht whereas a week or so ago they were 100 Baht so hopefully this is a sign the bottom feeding middlemen are being cut out of their lucrative loop for which they do practically nothing or at the very least they are having to reduce their margins.

I was in Tesco in Phetchabun and I was very surprised that the price has gone up even more that the normal 100 and 110 Baht per ticket, today they are attempting to sell for 115 per ticket and 500 Baht for a group of 4 tickets. That in a group of 4 cost you 125 Baht a ticket. Good job, only took 4 months to raise the previous ticket price to almost 70%. So much for "Cracking Down" on the sellers. Today being November 30th, 2014.

Edited November 30, 2014 by cougar52