The Government Lottery Office (GLO), a state-owned enterprise under the Finance Ministry, plans to gradually shift general lottery stalls to digital lottery stalls starting next month, says permanent finance secretary Lavaron Sangsnit.
As chairman of the GLO board, Mr Lavaron said the office has sold digital lottery tickets via the Pao Tang application since 2022 to crack down on ticket sales exceeding the specified price of 80 baht per copy.
GLO plans to provide another channel for small vendors to sell digital lottery tickets, using iPads or mobile phones.
Similar to physical lottery tickets, buyers can still choose their preferred numbers, he said.
The office sells lottery tickets in both digital and physical formats at present.
Around 80 million tickets are sold through general vendors, and 22 million via the Pao Tang app, for a total of 102 million tickets.
GLO plans to gradually increase the number of digital lottery tickets to ease the effect on street vendors, which mostly sell physical tickets.
The office expects to increase digital lottery tickets to 23 million in February, rising to 25-30 million by year-end, in response to public demand.
GLO is also planning to issue three-digit lottery tickets to compete with the underground lottery, with a launch expected in the middle of this year.
Last year 466 million digital lottery tickets were sold for 37.3 billion baht, with 1.27 million digital tickets winning cash prizes of 22.3 billion baht.
One lottery winner had 22 winning tickets for a first prize, with combined winnings of 132 million baht.
The top three provinces for lottery winners were Bangkok, Nonthaburi and Samut Prakan.