Punters will not have to wait long before they will be able to buy government lottery tickets at convenience stores as early as June, according to the Government Lottery Office (GLO).
The GLO is considering new distributors, chief among them operators of convenience stores such as 7-Eleven, Family Mart, Big C and Tesco Lotus, Somchai Sujjapongse, chairman of the Government Lottery Office's board, said on Saturday.
Contracts with distributors for the first lot involving 48 million tickets will expire in June so the time is right to review the list now, he said, adding the review was possible after the cabinet approved the amendment to the 1974 GLO Act.
"We're confident these stores can sell [lottery tickets] at 80 baht each, which will bring down the retail prices to that level," he said.
Since the coup, the junta has been trying unsuccessfully to fix retail lottery prices at their official face value of 80 baht each. Most tickets sell for 120-200 baht because they pass through a series of influential middlemen whose iron grip on distribution has frustrated attempts by numerous governments to reform the system.
As well, the effort to bring down prices had been hampered by the old legislation.