Anyone who sells lottery tickets at prices higher than their face value will now face a one-month jail term and/or a 10,000-baht fine, according to a new order issued by the junta under Section 44 of the interim charter.
The face value of lottery tickets is 80 baht a pair. However, most tickets sell for 100-120 baht due to markups resulting from multiple distribution layers and a complicated quota system.
Soldiers are also authorised by the new order to crack down on violators alongside police. The order also places a military man in charge of the Government Lottery Office.
Under the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) order published in the Royal Gazette late on Friday, the new Government Lottery for Social Development Fund will also be set up.
The fund is tasked with studying gambling-related problems, promoting anti-gambling activities, helping gambling victims and solving lottery ticket sale and distribution problems.
The money will be allocated from ticket sales plus interest earned over time. The finance minister can regulate the size of the fund as he deems appropriate and submit excess amount to state coffers.
The order also reallocates lottery sales income, with 60% going to prizes, at least 20% to state coffers, no more than 17% to administrative and sales expenses, and 3% to the new fund.
The order, which took effect on May 1, 2015, also appoints a new 12-member Government Lottery Office Board after Somchai Sujjapongse resigned as chairman last week.
Maj Gen Apirat Kongsompong, the new chairman of the GLO board. (Bangkok Post file photo)
The chairman of the new board will now be appointed by the NCPO. It also comprises one representative each from the Finance Ministry, the Social Development and Human Security Ministry, the Interior Ministry, the Justice Ministry, the Comptroller General's Office under the Finance Ministry, the Budget Bureau and the National Council on Social Welfare of Thailand. Three more members will be named by the NCPO and the other member is the director of the GLO.
Under the existing law, the chairman of the GLO board must come from the Finance Ministry, which supervises lottery business. Section 44 of the interim charter, which gives the NCPO chief absolute power, was therefore invoked to override that requirement and place a soldier in charge.
The new composition of the board is temporary as the order states the old law will be used in its place once the NCPO leaves office under the new constitution.
NCPO chief Gen Prayut Chan-o-ocha named Maj Gen Apirat Kongsompong, deputy Army First Region commander, as chairman of the GLO board.
Maj Gen Apirat's father, Gen Sunthorn Kongsompong, led the 1991 military coup that overthrew the government of Chatichai Choonhavan.
The other three members under the NCPO's quota are: Pol Maj Gen Suwat Chaengyodsuk, deputy commander of Metropolitan Police Bureau; Lt Col Noon Sansanakom, commander of the 11th Infantry Regiment under the 2nd Infantry King's Guard; and Assoc Prof Thanawat Phonvichai, director of the Center of Economics & Business Forecasting, University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce.