The Government Lottery Office is ready to change its equipment in an effort to dispel public jitters over the way the drawing is handled, the GLO's boss says.
A GLO official demonstrates the lottery drawing process to highlight its transparency after rigging allegations. Pattanapong Hirunard
Director-general Attagrit Tharechat said the agency will take about two months to decide which country will supply the lottery equipment and a further nine months for the purchasing process.
But he insisted it is impossible to fix the lottery results with 10 external directors monitoring the random draws.
The GLO's image has suffered again after the latest lottery results closely matched the licence plate numbers of Yingluck Shinawatra's vehicles for the ninth time since she took office in 2011.
In the March 16 drawing, the main winning number, 531404, resembled the caretaker prime minister's licence plate number 5404 for the minivan she recently used in Chiang Mai.
The two-digit winning number, 79, matched the last two digits of her Toyota Alphard's licence plate number 7879. The car was recently used on her Northeast trip.
Pongdej Hoonpadoongrat, a former adviser to the GLO board and designer of the machine used for drawings since 2002, said the existing equipment is 100% functional and impossible to rig.
He said he quit his role as adviser out of principle after some media quoted him as saying the machine could be rigged.