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A representative of Thai lottery vendors on Thursday urged the government to reconsider its move to boost the number of digital lottery tickets sold on the Pao Tang application, citing unsold tickets after the launch of online sales.
“Some lottery vendors have halted selling since they had heavy losses in the previous draw,” said Prasarn Nomchantuk, the representative of the five-region lottery vendor group.
“As digital lottery tickets were available, some dealers were hesitant to sell in the next draw,” he stressed.
The Government Lottery Office (GLO) is planning to increase the number of tickets sold online to 10 million each draw, up from 5.17 million tickets.
The launch of online sales is an attempt to address the overpricing issue that saw some vendors charging higher than 80 baht per ticket. The campaign has drawn great interest from Thais, resulting in system overload in the Pao Tang application on the draw day.
All 5.17 million tickets for the July 1 draw were sold out last Sunday, three days after they went on sale through the Pao Tang app. The first batch of 5.17 million tickets for June 16 sold out in five days.
“If the lottery office continues to add digital lottery tickets, it will be the end of lottery vendors’ career,” Prasarn said, adding that the income from selling lottery tickets is insufficient, especially with rising living costs.
However, officials at the GLO had previously explained that the online lottery launch did not cause the unsold tickets among lottery vendors, but rather overpricing.