New lottery bill to introduce online lottery and sales licenses for vendors

[webfact]

New lottery bill to introduce online lottery and sales licenses for vendors



BANGKOK: -- The Finance Ministry is expected to be able to submit to the cabinet in September a government lottery bill which will empower the Government Lottery Office to introduce, for the first time, online lottery and also will require lottery vendors to have licenses.

An informed source in the Finance Ministry said that the ministry and the Council of the State had already completed fine-tuning the draft bill which should be ready for submission to the cabinet for consideration in September.

The source said that the main reason for amending the government lottery law was to empower the GLO to introduce new product in addition to the traditional lottery tickets such as online lottery whereby lottery tickets will be available for sale through vending machines or through convenience stores.

In case of online lottery, a condition will be set under which the GLO will be required to send to the state coffers 23 percent of its revenue, to allocate 60 percent of the revenue as prize monies and the rest as management fees for the GLO.

However, the source said that the new government would decide whether online lottery should be introduced and a thorough study will have to be conducted to determine the pros and cons of online lottery.

The bill, said the source, will ban the sale of lottery tickets in school and to people less than 20 years of age. Vendors who overprice the tickets will be liable to one month’s imprisonment and/or a fine of 10,000 baht.

Also, the bill will require vendors to have licenses without which they will be liable to a fine of 10,000 baht and/or a three-month jailterm.

The source explained that this bill was regarded as an important piece of legislation that this government must enact otherwise no elected government would be willing to issue it for fear of public backlash.’

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/170295-2/


-- Thai PBS 2016-06-28

[Brer Fox]

A vigorously anti-gambling Thai government bringing gambling to the people. Living in Thailand brings with it the constant enjoyment of experiencing the inconceivable.

[JAG]

Lottery ticket sellers are possibly in the "lowest tier" of retail activity.

With licences, permits and increased regulation of what is basically a harmless way to make a living will come the opportunity for the state (formally) and its agents (informally) to gouge money out of them.

An online lottery will make a very large amount of money for whoever is sufficiently influential, and can supply sufficient "influence", to get their paws on the franchise.

Edited June 27, 2016 by JAG

[taichiplanet]

obviously the government is missing out on a fortune being played on the black market, particularly the 2 and 3 number bets. So it makes sense to try and get a piece of the action. Probably the only one of their grand schemes to actually make any money!

Edited June 28, 2016 by taichiplanet

[The stuttering parrot]

Has the PM ever being asked if he is so anti gambling why does he allow the lottery?

Then again you actually need the media to ask the question and they seem to be getting barred lately .

[marginline]

It would be kinda cool if Thailand could restructure their lottery, so to enable individuals to pick their own numbers like in the UK, EU and US. I'm sure the lottery commission would make more money too - for charitable endevours here in LOS.

[marginline]

Has the PM ever being asked if he is so anti gambling why does he allow the lottery?

I've always thought that too. Then of course, there's investing on the Stock Exchange Thailand.

[evadgib]

Does this mean lotteries elsewhere are now fair game?

[madmitch]

Has the PM ever being asked if he is so anti gambling why does he allow the lottery?

I've always thought that too. Then of course, there's investing on the Stock Exchange Thailand.

There's more than one way of investing on the Thai Stock Exchange.

The most popular underground lottery where I am is based on the last two digits of the closing price of the SET index. The lady that runs it makes a fortune as it can be run every weekday. I believe they have a lunchtime price as well so she gets two lots of bets every day.

I believe she pays out at 80/1.

Of course this is good news for the loan sharks; I must see at least five motorbikes with two men in full face helmets going into a couple of the nearby shops every day.

[JAG]

It would be kinda cool if Thailand could restructure their lottery, so to enable individuals to pick their own numbers like in the UK, EU and US. I'm sure the lottery commission would make more money too - for charitable endevours here in LOS.

Dare I suggest that your definition of " charitable endeavours" may differ somewhat from that of those involved in controlling the lottery!

[Winniedapu]

A vigorously anti-gambling Thai government bringing gambling to the people. Living in Thailand brings with it the constant enjoyment of experiencing the inconceivable.

Have you ever seen the over-ceremonialised televised lottery program?

It;s a complete clown-show from start to finish - looks like western TV was 50 years ago.

Winnie

Edited June 28, 2016 by Winniedapu

[Johpa]

Have you ever seen the over-ceremonialised televised lottery program?

It;s a complete clown-show from start to finish - looks like western TV was 50 years ago.

Winnie

Do you remember the command performance some 30 years ago when the lottery machines used at that time stopped between the numbers on live TV? A later inspection found wires running from the machines under the carpet to the adjacent room. After a few days the then head of the lottery came out on TV to announce that the evil had been exorcised and it was now safer than ever to play the lottery. The clown show that is the Thai government has been running non-stop for a very long time now. And we can't even get into the over-ceremonialised aspect of the nation.