News Forum - Thailand considers digital lottery to beat overpriced vendors

[Thaiger]

With the biggest e-Commerce market in Southeast Asia, Thailand is planning to launch a new online platform to sell printed national lottery tickets in digital format to combat the high prices of some physical vendors. According to a member and spokesman for the Government Lottery Office, Thanawat Polvichai, the alternative digital lottery will be among the options offered to the board for consideration at a meeting last week. Another three options: lotto, pictorial lottery tickets, and two- and three-digit lottery tickets. To focus on the younger generation and catch up with the neighbouring countries of Laos and Vietnam in offering […]

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[Stonker]

For lottery sellers who are lucky enough to have a 'box' of 500 tickets, they pay 71 baht per ticket from the government.

500 ticket 'boxes' are either 300 singles and 100 pairs or 100 singles and 200 pairs.

Those who aren't lucky enough to have a 'box' of tickets buy them from those who do or from wholesalers.  A year ago they paid 81 or 82 baht a ticket, now they pay 92 or 93 baht a ticket - more for pairs.

All sets of 3, 4 or 5 tickets have been 'pooled' illegally and then re-sold to sellers.

The big money isn't made by the sellers, but by those who are allocated and re-sell the tickets wholesale, who make millions every month.

Most sellers don't have boxes - how are they supposed to buy the tickets for 92 or 93 baht and then sell them for 80 baht?

[Stonker]

Thaksin introduced two and three digit ticket sales, where you just chose and bought the first or last two or three digits for 20 baht.

As soon as he was ousted that was cancelled and the only way since you can bet on the first or last two or three numbers without buying a ticket is by the 'underground' lottery which pays slightly better odds.

Re-introducing it would make a lot of money for the government, but cost the underground lottery their business.

[Paco]

48 minutes ago, Stonker said:

Thaksin introduced two and three digit ticket sales, where you just chose and bought the first or last two or three digits for 20 baht.

As soon as he was ousted that was cancelled and the only way since you can bet on the first or last two or three numbers without buying a ticket is by the 'underground' lottery which pays slightly better odds.

Re-introducing it would make a lot of money for the government, but cost the underground lottery their business.

yeah but they not that smart...

[Rain]

1 hour ago, Stonker said:

Thaksin introduced two and three digit ticket sales, where you just chose and bought the first or last two or three digits for 20 baht.

As soon as he was ousted that was cancelled and the only way since you can bet on the first or last two or three numbers without buying a ticket is by the 'underground' lottery which pays slightly better odds.

Re-introducing it would make a lot of money for the government, but cost the underground lottery their business.

Not necessarily. Just as easy for the dark lottery economy to present themselves digitally as well. 

 

[DiJoDavO]

Isn't it every seller's point to buy something for a lower price and sell it for a bit higher price? 

[Stonker]

39 minutes ago, Rain said:

Not necessarily. Just as easy for the dark lottery economy to present themselves digitally as well. 

Hardly!

Selling the underground lottery on line, which would require you to put your bank account details on line, really wouldn't be a good idea!

[Faraday]

38 minutes ago, Stonker said:

Hardly!

Selling the underground lottery on line, which would require you to put your bank account details on line, really wouldn't be a good idea!

Using the Black Lottery to buy numbers & collect the winnings have been available on LINE for 4 years at least.

 

[palooka]

1 hour ago, Rain said:

Not necessarily. Just as easy for the dark lottery economy to present themselves digitally as well. 

They do already so what difference would it make.

Digital numbers on the open and closing numbers of the stock market daily, Morning opening , lunch close, afternoon opening and closing. Throw in the Lao lottery same day as the Thai lottery there is billions going the way of digital economy already.

[Cathat]

The cough cough, unofficial lottery still offers better value tickets and higher winning payouts.a fine example of the private sector at work.

[MrNovax]

Why do i feel like the "prices" will soon be the same just that the small vendors are cut from the picture and the overlords are that much wealthier?  

[Stonker]

On 12/22/2021 at 10:04 PM, MrNovax said:

Why do i feel like the "prices" will soon be the same just that the small vendors are cut from the picture and the overlords are that much wealthier?  

Because you've got it right - although to some extent it'll be fairer for some "small vendors" but the "overlords" will still be making the same profits.

The latest on this on Thai media is that the digital lottery's been approved, buying tickets on-line through an app, but although "Thanawat said existing registered vendors will not be affected by the new change but the proportion of tickets and will likely reset the price to 80 baht to eliminate overpriced vendors", the reports are that all "existing registered vendors" whose boxes of 500 tickets are collected at post offices will lose them in three months time (March 2022), with only the comparative few who collect them at provincial city halls retaining them.

Anyone (except those who already have a 'box' which they collect from City Halls) will then be able to apply for a new 'box', with the priority going to the disabled and their registered carers.

Those applications will then go into provincial 'lucky draws' to allocate boxes.

The last time this happened there was a less than 1 in a hundred chance of 'winning' a box - in some areas 1 in a thousand - and it's not yet clear how long the 'winners' will have the box for, although it's rumoured to be at least two years.

The big wholesalers, though, the "overlords", will still keep their tickets which they buy at 70 baht each and sell on to the small vendors to re-sell. A couple of years ago they were selling them wholesale for 80 - 82 baht a ticket, but now they're selling them at 92 - 93 baht a ticket.

How the on-line sales through the app will affect them is anyone's guess, but you can guarantee they'll still be making millions every month while a few hundred thousand lottery sellers will be unemployed.