The Government Lottery Office (GLO) announced on Thursday it will begin selling sets of same-number lottery tickets from March to meet demand and stop price gouging.
GLO spokesman Thanavat Phonvichai said people had complained about overpriced lottery tickets after some parties gathered tickets to make sets of tickets with the same number -- but from different volumes -- to lure buyers with potential huge prizes...and charge marked-up prices.
Vendors sold such privately-curated sets at a premium, he said, and the practice reduced the number of single lottery tickets available in markets.
The GLO found from its past surveys that there was high demand for sets of tickets with the same number from both buyers and vendors, Mr Thanavat said.
To solve the problem of tickets being sold for more than their 80-baht retail price, the GLO will provide each vendor with two lots of 100 sets of two same-number tickets and one bunch of 100 individual tickets.
The new practice would start for the March 1 draw and continue for three months before evaluation, Mr Thanavat said.
The GLO would spread tickets bearing the same numbers nationwide to make it difficult for other parties to gather sets of more than two same-number tickets. Earlier, vendors sold sets of two, three and five same-number tickets, he said.