Lottery sellers go home with quota pledge

Lottery sellers go home with quota pledge

Lottery ticket vendors from Loei province rally near Government House on Monday to demand for increased quotas for small-scale lottery retailers. (Photo: Apichart Jinakul)
Lottery ticket vendors from Loei province rally near Government House on Monday to demand for increased quotas for small-scale lottery retailers. (Photo: Apichart Jinakul)

Hundreds of individual lottery vendors from Loei have returned home after receiving an assurance from the Government Lottery Office (GLO) that it will allocate them ticket quotas on Aug 10.

Jeerasak Noikam, president of the Loei Province Lottery Club, said the group was satisfied by the assurance, after meeting a government representative on Tuesday.

Mr Jeerasak had led more than 350 protesting vendors outside Government House since Sunday calling for the GLO chief and board to resign and allocate quotas of lottery tickets priced at 70.40 baht for them.

The group said they have been forced to buy from other wholesalers at 92 baht, and pass on some of that additional cost to customers. They have never received quotas so they could not sell tickets at 80 baht, he said.

The group filed a petition along with a list of small-scale vendors who wanted to receive lottery quotas on Tuesday and received a satisfactory answer, he said.

"Today marks a milestone in our efforts. We believe we will get what we asked for from the GLO," he said.

One of the vendors from Loei said he has sold lottery tickets for 30 years and never had a quota. He expects that on Aug 10, his name will be among those whom the GLO will allocate quotas to at the wholesale price. After receiving the assurance the protesters went home around 11am on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, other small retailers lodged a complaint urging the Anti-Corruption Division to review the GLO's decision to cut quotas to 50,000 sellers as well as look into a new digital lottery ticket project.

The network said the GLO cancelled the quotas of many vendors, including those who are disabled and supposed to get them.

Prime Minister's Office Minister Anucha Nakasai said selling lottery tickets online is preferable as customers pay the right price.

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