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The Government Lottery Office (GLO), has for the 1st time come out to say that buyers of its 100 million lotter tickets sold each fortnight, could possibly buy the tickets at 78 Baht a piece, but they have to purchase the tickets via the online application.
The government of 2014 coup leader – Prayut Chan-o-cha, has been for years trying to control the price of the tickets of lottery that until a few months ago was only sold via lottery vendors, but ticket prices were never below 90 Baht for a single ticket while those looking to buy a few tickets of the same number, were paying close to 150 Baht a ticket (nearly 2x the sticker price).
Lawaron Saengsanit, director general of the Revenue Department and also the Chairman of the GLO, came out to say that this lower price would be offered for the September 1, 2022 tickets, which are being sold now.
Thailand’s lottery tickets are drawn on 1st and 16th of each month, unless these dates fall on national holidays or New Year’s day.
The drawing for September 1, 2022 winnings are already up for sale from August 17th onwards and the government has gradually increased the number of tickets to be sold via the digital application over the past few months.
During this September 1st winning drawing, a total of just over 10.32 million tickets being sold online. The GLO offers 100 million tickets each drawing and for each ticket the winning prize is 3 million Baht.
Prayut’s government during the rule under the military had come out with the Section 44 to control the prices but was unable to control the price, and 5-years later has managed to come up with the idea of selling part of the 100 million tickets as from its own mobile application.
The response has been so good that each drawing the tickets are sold out within days, and for September 1st drawing, nearly 70% of the more than 10 million tickets that were offered for sale on August 17 (just 36 hours ago) have been sold out as of 08:00 hrs. this morning.
“This year’s goal is to aim to sell tickets for 80 Baht, about 20 million tickets,” Lawaron said.
Therefore, adding an option for merchants to be able to discount digital lottery tickets will be useful if the GLO increases the number of tickets to more than 15 million tickets in the future.
“We want to see people set the price of the lotteries. I want to see the rejection of overpriced lottery purchases. This will be another part that will help push the price of the lotteries in the market as well,” he said.