The National Council for Peace and Order will prohibit large lottery agents from selling to wholesalers and have the government buy back “unlucky” tickets from dealers in order to bring the price of tickets under control next month.
Deputy government spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said Tuesday that the NCPO would revamp the entire ticket-allocations system next month to bring the prices of lottery ducats to the official 80-baht mark by the end of June. The revamp is being made possible because previous contracts covering ticket quotas to large agents expired, he said.
Under the new system, large agents - who are supposed to sell directly to the public - will be barred from selling their quotas to wholesalers, who then mark up the price, resulting in higher retail prices for the public, Maj Gen Sansern said.
The government plans to lower its wholesale price in order to guarantee more profit for dealers selling at the legal 80-baht price, he noted. He did not explain what impact, if any, the reduction in government revnue would have on prize payouts.
The Government Lottery Office also will begin buying back unsold tickets. Each drawing, dealers say they are stuck with caches of unsold tickets bearing unpopular and "unlucky" numbers. To make up for the unsold tickets, vendors have raised prices on popular numbers.
After the lottery ticket quota is revamped, anyone who sells lottery tickets at prices higher than their face value will face legal action, the spokesman warned.