The board of the Government Lottery Office (GLO) has approved the allocation of an unlimited number of lottery tickets to retail vendors.
The move is part of government efforts to resolve the problem of overpriced tickets.
The GLO will issue lottery tickets based on demand starting for the Nov 1 draw, said Maj Gen Aphiratch Kongsompong, deputy chief of the First Army Region and the GLO's chairman.
Up to 8 million more pairs or 16 million tickets are expected to be added, he said.
There are now 74 million pairs of lottery tickets, and all of them are sold under the quota system, which has been blamed for the overpricing since tickets pass through several large vendors before reaching retail vendors.
The present government has successfully used several measures to push for lottery tickets to be sold at 80 baht a pair.
Those include an increase in the discount rate to retail vendors and quota revocation for those selling them at more than 80 baht.
But concerns prevail that overpricing will return, so the government is continuing to launch proactive measures.
Maj Gen Aphiratch said retail vendors interested in buying more lottery tickets to sell must register for the rights to buy the additional tickets at state-owned Krungthai Bank (KTB).
Vendors must buy at least five lottery books but not more than 50. Each book contains 100 pairs of lottery tickets.
The additional tickets will be sold for 70.40 baht a pair, giving retail vendors a profit of 9.60 baht per pair.
The GLO has the capacity to issue 100 million pairs of lottery tickets, and at least 10,000 books are required for the additional prints.
"From now on, anyone can sell lottery tickets. Retail vendors can directly buy tickets from the GLO through KTB, so no one can say they cannot obtain lottery tickets any more," Maj Gen Aphiratch said. "The higher number of tickets won't affect the quota system, which remains in place."
Registration will start on Sept 15, with the additional tickets to be sold at KTB from Oct 16.
The GLO will seriously start punishing vendors selling lottery tickets at above the cap of 80 baht a pair, Maj Gen Aphiratch said.
The maximum punishment will be a 10,000-baht fine, one month in jail, quota revocation and examination of backdated tax payments.
The GLO has requested state agencies probe backdated tax payments of 27 lottery vendors selling tickets for more than 80 baht a pair and will soon reveal their names.