News Forum - Police seize lottery tickets allegedly smuggled by Thailand Post staff

[Thaiger]

Police seized more than 200,000 lottery tickets allegedly smuggled by a Thailand Post staff member in the Isaan province Loei. Apparently, an employee of the government-owned postal service was selling hundreds and thousands of lottery tickets to brokers when the tickets were reserved for local vendors. The Thai lottery tickets are technically supposed to be sold at 80 baht, but if you try to buy a ticket from a street vendor, most will sell for 100 baht, saying the wholesale price per ticket is 80 to 90 baht. The local sellers typically don’t buy tickets directly from the Government Lottery […]

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[Stonker]

38 minutes ago, Thaiger said:

The Thai lottery tickets are technically supposed to be sold at 80 baht, but if you try to buy a ticket from a street vendor, most will sell for 100 baht, saying the wholesale price per ticket is 80 to 90 baht. The local sellers typically don’t buy tickets directly from the Government Lottery Office and usually purchase them from a dealer, which some say is the reason for the inflated price.

This week the going rate is 97 - 98 baht from the dealers or those lucky enough to have a 'box' - rather difficult for lottery sellers to sell them for 80 baht!

Those with a box (500 tickets) buy the tickets at 70 baht, but they pretty well have to sell them at the same price as everyone else otherwise they won't be too popular.  Many with boxes will sell their box of 500 on to sellers, giving them both a profit.

42 minutes ago, Thaiger said:

To fix the problem of overpriced tickets, the Thai government opened online systems for sellers to reserve lottery tickets and get them at a nearby post office.

That hasn't happened yet, and that isn't how it will happen.  Those who don't already have a 'box' of 500, which was largely 'luck' (or knowing the right person), can apply for a box and then in March there will be a 'draw' to pick who gets one - around one percent of those who applied will probably be lucky.

[Vince]

33 minutes ago, Stonker said:

This week the going rate is 97 - 98 baht from the dealers or those lucky enough to have a 'box' - rather difficult for lottery sellers to sell them for 80 baht!

Those with a box (500 tickets) buy the tickets at 70 baht, but they pretty well have to sell them at the same price as everyone else otherwise they won't be too popular.  Many with boxes will sell their box of 500 on to sellers, giving them both a profit.

That hasn't happened yet, and that isn't how it will happen.  Those who don't already have a 'box' of 500, which was largely 'luck' (or knowing the right person), can apply for a box and then in March there will be a 'draw' to pick who gets one - around one percent of those who applied will probably be lucky.

500x70THB / £781 is the price of a box of tickets? 

But they are resold at at THB97-98 / £2.16 each,(retail)? 

I thought lottery ticket sales were restricted to Thai nationals?

Can tourists buy and resell tickets? Or just buy? 

[Stonker]

16 minutes ago, Vince said:

500x70THB / £781 is the price of a box of tickets? 

Well, just over - as far as I can recall it's 35,600 baht plus a 10 baht bank charge on top of that at KrungThai Bank.

You can't just 'buy' a box, though, you have to be allocated one and some are distributed through post offices and some through provincial city halls.

20 minutes ago, Vince said:

But they are resold at at THB97-98 / £2.16 each,(retail)? 

No, that's wholesale - there are unofficial distribution centres across Thailand where you can go and buy tickets to re-sell, or you can stand outside the post office and try to buy one there - some are more open about it than others.  As a buyer, you've no way of knowing if the person you're buying a ticket from has a box themselves or bought them from someone else.

Tickets are only ever originally sold singly or in pairs (boxes have a mix, usually 300 x single and 100 pairs or 200 pairs and 100 x single) so when you see them sold in a 'set' of 3, 4 or 5 tickets then they've been through the big dealers and the tickets have been put together matching up the numbers then re-sold and they're then sold at an even higher price (120 or even 150 baht a ticket).  Completely illegal, but they're openly advertised on the 'net.

All the tickets have a code, so the original individual sellers can easily be identified. Anyone caught not selling them legally will then have their 'box' taken away and be blacklisted, and their box will be allocated to the next on the waiting list.  Those who are disabled or who are registered carers  for those who are disabled are given a priority and jump the queue.

32 minutes ago, Vince said:

I thought lottery ticket sales were restricted to Thai nationals?

I'm not a lottery ticket seller  - but like most people in Issan I know plenty of people who are.

 

34 minutes ago, Vince said:

Can tourists buy and resell tickets? Or just buy? 

It's not something I'd recommend!  Work permit aside, as it's illegal to sell tickets for more than 80 baht they'd have a bit of a problem!

[Faraday]

1 hour ago, Vince said:

500x70THB / £781 is the price of a box of tickets? 

Englander, sure.

[Paco]

2 hours ago, Vince said:

500x70THB / £781 is the price of a box of tickets? 

But they are resold at at THB97-98 / £2.16 each,(retail)? 

I thought lottery ticket sales were restricted to Thai nationals?

Can tourists buy and resell tickets? Or just buy? 

Like you said tourist... no working permit you can not sell them either. Simple as that only buy and lose

[stuhan]

Set up online lottery same as other countries, best of both ways online and on street, much simpler but choosing numbers might be a problem, don't know how they could do it.