New system will stop overpricing, allow decent income for Thai lottery vendors

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LOTTO
New system will stop overpricing, allow decent income for lottery vendors
The Nation



BANGKOK: -- The government will promulgate a law allowing lottery vendors to earn a higher income while cracking down on those abusing the system, to fix the problem of overpricing once and for all.

Since the government has a policy to allow traders to gain a bigger profit, there is no excuse for selling overpriced tickets. Those who violate the law will be harshly punished," Maj-General Sansern Kaewkamnerd, deputy government spokesman, said yesterday.

The new law, which will replace existing laws after they expire, will overhaul the lottery pricing and quota system next month, he said.

Under the current arrangement, those granted a quota of lottery tickets do not sell all of them to individual buyers but pass batches to wholesalers or retailers, who need to tack on their margin, causing prices to snowball.

"This is equal to price manipulation. The last retailers are forced to sell at inflated prices because they bought the tickets at already-high prices. This has led to huge funds circulating in the black-market economy, where money is spent illegally or inappropriately," he said.

The government will ensure that lottery tickets are distributed to sellers in Bangkok and upcountry at the same low price - for instance Bt70 - so that they can make a bigger mark-up, he said.

The government will also reserve a budget to buy back leftover tickets. Under the current system, traders are stuck with the cost of some lottery tickets whose numbers are not popular and cannot be sold. Vendors have always justified selling overpriced tickets by claiming that they have residual tickets that are not bought up each draw.

The government also warned about protests instigated by retailers and associations of the disabled to pressure the government to scrap the new lottery-ticket system, Sansern said.

"The government is determined to solve the problem for small retailers who honestly make a living from selling tickets and ensure justice for the public so that they can buy tickets at a fair price," he said.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/New-system-will-stop-overpricing-allow-decent-inco-30259374.html


-- The Nation 2015-05-06

[zaphod reborn]

"fix the problem once and for all". Who comes up with these promises. Overcharging and scamming is genetic for the Thais.

[jerojero]

Yes, lottery vendors need protection and fairness. To H. with the millions of farmers, factory workers, fishing boats slaves. Our government priority is the lotteries!

[realenglish1]

As I have always said that 7-11 and other type stores should sell the tickets Street Vendors and stores buy the tickets for the same price. Lets say 70 Baht. Then they can all sell them for 80 baht

The rub is this . If the street vendors try and start selling the tickets for more than 80 baht people will stop buying them and buy at 7-11 or similar type outlets,

This is market force and it works. Proven over 100 plus years in a market economy.

And the government should buy back unsold tickets

[oohay200]

What would had been the best option and opportunity for GLO to revamp and modernized Thai lottery system, when the allocation quota has expired, they chose to go back to the dinosaur age of distributing lottery tickets the conventional way...instead of implementing the online lottery ( via lottery dispensing machines ) as those developing countries have has success such as Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and even Vietnam.

Well....1 small step forward ( eradicating the middlemen ) but 10 steps backward ( print first then sell ).......

What happened to all the talks about the government were so adamant about moving into digital age and have had spoken about using the lottery dispensing machines, as a solution to solve lottery issues, even to the point of using convenience stores to adopt such advanced system but only to fall back flat to square one.......

Many many years ago, Loxley in partnership with Gtech, the world's largest lottery system solution provider, have won the bid to assist GLO to modernized the lottery system but yet todate, they still have the lottery dispensing machines waiting to be used....

Some of the advantages of the lottery dispensing machines :-

1. No need to pre-print the lottery tickets but as and when people buys them, it will be printed...

so save time and efforts to think how to implement buy back unsold tickets....

2. Each lottery ticket sold at standard 1 price....no overcharging

3. People have the choice to choose what numbers they wish to buy....

4. Flexible enough to do 2 or 3 or 4 or 6 digit numbers, when GLO wish to introduce other form of games in the near future....

5. Do away with middlemen

Well....the only disadvantage is the " disable " or those " poor " people needing a job to earn their living but isn't this falls under the welfare department ?

I am sure there are other better jobs than selling lottery for a living.....

Using the same 30 years old method of selling lottery tickets is definitely not the solution and Thailand deserves to be at the same platform as their neighboring countries in terms of technology......If by June '15, such system stays....it is a sad day for a promising country like Thailand which has so much more capability and expertise, to be a leader in this Asean region......

[wowfactor10]

Well this system will just only ensure more profit for who is leading Thailand.

I assume that is whats it,s all about in the first place..