Lottery tickets to be sold at convenience stores

[Thaivisa News]

Bangkok: – The Government Lottery Office is expected in June to start designating convenience stores as new outlets for distributing and selling lottery tickets.

The GLO will reallocate lottery quotas designed to cap the lottery retail price at 80 baht by using convenience stores to counterbalance the market control of five lottery wholesalers.

GLO board chairman Somchai Sujjapongse said the revamp of lottery distribution system should complete by this year.

All existing contracts for selling 74 million lottery tickets will expire, paving way for the reallocation.

The first batch of contracts for 48 million lottery tickets is to be up for grabs in June. The remaining contracts will be terminated in July, August and December.

This month, the GLO is going to start negotiating with major operators of convenience stores, such as Seven Eleven, Big C, Tesco Lotus and Family Mart.

The GLO plans to install online ticket dispensing machines at convenience stores, voicing hopes that this will force wholesalers and retail vendors to stop inflating the lottery price.

Khuang Khamthee, chairman of lottery vendors with physical disabilities in Nakhon Ratchasima, has voiced opposition to the planned introduction of ticket dispensing machines.

Khuang said vendors with physical disabilities would be at the disadvantage as they can sell lottery within limited hours while the convenience stores is open twenty four hours, seven days a week.

National Reform Council member Sangsit Piriyarangsan said the ticket dispensing machines would unfairly boost the business of convenience stores at the expense of individual vendors.

Sangsit said the GLO should consider bypassing powerful wholesalers and distributing the tickets directly to individual vendors.

[lust]

Hey,Thailand is finally catching up with the world! Shame it will be the demise of its tourism.

[daoyai]

one more example of concentrating the wealth to the already wealthy, some of the poorest and disabled people get by selling lottery tickests, now their little income will be absorbed by mega rich 7-11.

[ramrod711]

Khuang Khamthee, chairman of lottery vendors with physical disabilities in Nakhon Ratchasima, has voiced opposition to the planned introduction of ticket dispensing machines.

Khuang said vendors with physical disabilities would be at the disadvantage as they can sell lottery within limited hours while the convenience stores is open twenty four hours, seven days a week.

I always buy two lottery tickets a month, one for each draw. I always buy from the same disabled lady, and I always pay the same inflated price, 110 baht. Sixty baht per month isn't a strain on my budget, but given a choice, I would rather pay 80 baht for a ticket that features numbers that I have selected myself.

[HeijoshinCool]

Hey,Thailand is finally catching up with the world! Shame it will be the demise of its tourism.

.

Don't know how it would be the demise of tourism, but it sure will be the demise of a few million jobs.

[Jip99]

one more example of concentrating the wealth to the already wealthy, some of the poorest and disabled people get by selling lottery tickests, now their little income will be absorbed by mega rich 7-11.

Then they shouldn't have jumped om the greed bandwagon and sold at inflated prices.

Lottery vendors are like Baht buses in Pattaya - there are probably 50% to many! (although never there when you want one )

I am not looking forward to standing in the queue behind Somchai, to buy my can of Birdy coffee, while hr.e dwells over his lucky number, pays his electric bill and collects his online order.

[ColdSingha]

the lottery also known as the poor tax

[jerojero]

Oh joy. Longer line ups at waiting at the checkout.

[jlwilliamsjr18]

Those people who carry wooden boxes with lottery tickets for sale...what happens to them. Boycott the animated sellers.

[Thian]

I despise the lotteryticket vendors, especially the ones at the government offices. Those people are always in my way, occupy the few availlable chairs for CUSTOMERS, block paths at markets/pavements.

Some of the handicapped vendors dress up like if they go to war, i see them with mouthmask and something like bulletproof vests, gloves, long sleeves, safety shoes and so on while sitting at a very hot spot.

I never bought lotterytickets but i will support the handicapped vendors if they sell something i need. Cold drinks or snacks. But i don't understand why they have to sit outside the malls in the heat. Also i don't understand why they have to sell lotterytickets, can Thailand not help those people a little and let them participate in the society? They can sell parkingtickets as well from an aircondtioned booth,.

[KunMatt]

one more example of concentrating the wealth to the already wealthy, some of the poorest and disabled people get by selling lottery tickests, now their little income will be absorbed by mega rich 7-11.

Not really, 7/11 will sell the tickets for the real price of 80 baht instead of the mafia pushing the tickets through disadvantaged street people for 110 baht, for which they only pay them about 200 baht per day.

And have you ever noticed that the winning numbers are not available from the street sellers? For 6 years I've always bought tickets ending in 13 and had no problem finding tickets but the 2 times 13 was a winning number I couldn't find any tickets that week from dozens of street sellers. It could just be a coincidence but I don't think it is. Being able to choose your own numbers like a normal lottery does away with most of the corrupt side of this system. If they really wanted to move into the 20th century then they could even have a random number choosing machine, it could even be audited by a non-biased 3rd party.

[Vatman]

I`m sure anyone living in rural Thailand will tell you that the interest in the lottery is in the last 2 and 3 numbers. In my village the odds offered are 499-1 on the last 3 numbers ( ie, 10 Baht on the correct numbers returns 5000 Baht) & 49-1 on the last 2 numbers. Half the true odds. The money invested every lottery draw probably dwarfs that invested on official lottery tickets so it matters not where these official lottery tickets are being sold, or whether they cost 80 Bt or 100Bt.

[janpoo]

Ticket dispending machines!!!! What kind of network they want to use?

[jacko45k]

Good, I hope it deters those annoying people who overcharge for them in restaurants and have no hesitation disturbing me when I am eating.

Two in the space of 2 minutes just last night.

[shaurene]

About time they did this. The government must insist the shop sellers put the machine seperate from the normal tills and have one person manning it all time. They will obviously sell many more that normal, lot of tourists would buy from the shop.

Lot of these street sellers work for big business people who get most of the profit.

[English_M_in_Bkk]

one more example of concentrating the wealth to the already wealthy, some of the poorest and disabled people get by selling lottery tickests, now their little income will be absorbed by mega rich 7-11.

Then they shouldn't have jumped om the greed bandwagon and sold at inflated prices.

Lottery vendors are like Baht buses in Pattaya - there are probably 50% to many! (although never there when you want one )

I am not looking forward to standing in the queue behind Somchai, to buy my can of Birdy coffee, while hr.e dwells over his lucky number, pays his electric bill and collects his online order.

Yeah right, disabled poor people whose only income is a few thousand baht from selling lottery tickets - the height of greed. Not as though they have many other options is it, and I am sure if there was some kind of state benefit you would be moaning about them claiming that? Damned it they do and damned it they don't.

[LuckyLew]

About time they realized it is 2015

[Jip99]

one more example of concentrating the wealth to the already wealthy, some of the poorest and disabled people get by selling lottery tickests, now their little income will be absorbed by mega rich 7-11.

Then they shouldn't have jumped om the greed bandwagon and sold at inflated prices.

Lottery vendors are like Baht buses in Pattaya - there are probably 50% to many! (although never there when you want one )

I am not looking forward to standing in the queue behind Somchai, to buy my can of Birdy coffee, while hr.e dwells over his lucky number, pays his electric bill and collects his online order.

Yeah right, disabled poor people whose only income is a few thousand baht from selling lottery tickets - the height of greed. Not as though they have many other options is it, and I am sure if there was some kind of state benefit you would be moaning about them claiming that? Damned it they do and damned it they don't.

Not my job to find a solution to that - take your crusade elsewhere.

[Nbarch]

Switching to electronic lottery machines is something that is long overdue. The price is fixed and another big advantage is that the EXACT amount of money raised is automatically calculated on the central computer, so an audit trail is clearly present.

Unfortunately the street vendors will, most likely, be made redundant, but Thailand has to move forward. Of course a forward thinking government can put plans in place, like for example, adding 10baht to each lottery ticket and using money that to help re-train these people.

Just think; say 45million lottery tickets are sold, which at 110baht a ticket is about B135miilion that the Government Lottery Office does not receive.

[Benmart]

one more example of concentrating the wealth to the already wealthy, some of the poorest and disabled people get by selling lottery tickests, now their little income will be absorbed by mega rich 7-11.

I do sympathize with the vendors, but there was little self-policing and the end result is what has been announced.

I prefer to decide which mega-rich businesses to patronize or not. If I buy a lottery ticket, it will most likely be from the street vendors during their limited hours of sales.

[maidee]

tought those tickets were only worth 40 baht, so why still 100% inflated price on top ?

[nahkit]

Switching to electronic lottery machines is something that is long overdue. The price is fixed and another big advantage is that the EXACT amount of money raised is automatically calculated on the central computer, so an audit trail is clearly present.

Unfortunately the street vendors will, most likely, be made redundant, but Thailand has to move forward. Of course a forward thinking government can put plans in place, like for example, adding 10baht to each lottery ticket and using money that to help re-train these people.

Just think; say 45million lottery tickets are sold, which at 110baht a ticket is about B135miilion that the Government Lottery Office does not receive.

Well, under the new proposal, the Government still won't receive that extra B135million you calculate as they will still be selling the tickets at 80baht and not the street price of 110baht.

[siam2007]

GET REAL !!!

let's face it, those who really benefitted from the sales are those 5 MAFIA-style Organizations (of course most owned by "influential people") who were allotted all the tickets. yes a few Baht went into the pockets of disabled sellers and others, but 99% got into the pockets of those shady Mafia organizations.

The system is exactly the same that THAKSIN applied --->>> Exploiting the country in a shameless way, and keeping the "poor people" happy and ensuring to get enough votes in the next election by pouring some breadcrumbs on them, which made them happy and ensured his reputation as a semi-god amongst the poorer folks.

[nahkit]

tought those tickets were only worth 40 baht, so why still 100% inflated price on top ?

There is no 100% inflated price, the tickets are sold in pairs, they can't be bought singly.

[Pib]

one more example of concentrating the wealth to the already wealthy, some of the poorest and disabled people get by selling lottery tickests, now their little income will be absorbed by mega rich 7-11.

This has been attempted several times before but the uproar from the poor and disabled got the idea killed. And when the govt first announced they were going to do it their announcement made it sound like all but a done deal, but then the uproar started and they began to quickly backtrack.

No way the govt is going to be able to completely cutoff the poor/disabled from selling tickets because Thais probably feel its part of their culture and they like looking over all the numbers a lottery ticket seller has and then picking their lucky number. Plus, many Thais feel their ticket buy from a disabled person is charity to some degree....you don't get that on-the-spot charity feeling when buying your ticket from a machine in 7-11.

While the govt will eventually get to lottery ticket machines (even Thailand moves forward slowly), I just can not see it happening all at once (like June of this year) and the poor/disabled being shut out for lottery ticket sales unless maybe they are given exclusive rights to their own machines at certain locations....then the govt will probably even subsidize/help them buy/rent the machine....it will be a slow change over when it occurs.

[mikiea]

one more example of concentrating the wealth to the already wealthy, some of the poorest and disabled people get by selling lottery tickests, now their little income will be absorbed by mega rich 7-11.

wake up from your make everybody feel good dream . for years a scam has taken place .that I why it is being corrected . a 15 to 20% add on is a scam . if you want to help the disabled , give them a job , put them to work, do not turn them into sit on the corner sell inflated ticket scammers . this was never meant to be a full time job . feel good about yourself with your own money . how dare you lecture people on your feel good ideas.

[z42]

Given a choice I would happily pay a few extra baht to help out a disabled lottery vendor rather than just throw a slightly smaller fee at 7/11 who rake in stacks of money daily.

But where I am all of the lottery vendors i have seen are fully able bodied, mobile and seemingly of sound mind yet they still sell at a price they deem acceptable, so I never buy. It is sad that the greed of some affects the earning power of those who can't help themselves as easily.

Does the Thai lottery have charitable funds attached to it, much like is the case with the UK lottery? If so shouldn't these charitable trusts raise money to help the people who are unable to work due to their disability, thus making steps to solve the problems outlined...

[Jip99]

Given a choice I would happily pay a few extra baht to help out a disabled lottery vendor rather than just throw a slightly smaller fee at 7/11 who rake in stacks of money daily.

But where I am all of the lottery vendors i have seen are fully able bodied, mobile and seemingly of sound mind yet they still sell at a price they deem acceptable, so I never buy. It is sad that the greed of some affects the earning power of those who can't help themselves as easily.

Does the Thai lottery have charitable funds attached to it, much like is the case with the UK lottery? If so shouldn't these charitable trusts raise money to help the people who are unable to work due to their disability, thus making steps to solve the problems outlined...

I agree 100% with the sentiment here.

However, you need to understand that the lottery is mafia controlled and there re no discernable benrefits for the disabled - certainly there is no charitable funds element to the lotery. Perhaps there should be, but tht would involve a huge debate about social welfare.

The best thing about these changes is a further reduction in corrupt practices in Thailand. Unfortunately, the collateral damage impacts on many disabled people.

[Daniel Ingalls]

......................That would be convenient ! Will the guy in the wheelchair selling tickets be their as well?

[Bluespunk]

"Khuang Khamthee, chairman of lottery vendors with physical disabilities in Nakhon Ratchasima, has voiced opposition to the planned introduction of ticket dispensing machines."

Shouldn't have overcharged then.