Thai lotteries set for review as GLO moves to cut out ‘middlemen’

As reported by local news provider Nation Thailand, the Government Lottery Office (GLO) is currently in the process of reviewing a list of 200,000 registered lottery sellers with the aim of bringing a halt to government and state enterprise officers selling lotteries. 

Pachara Anantasilp, Director general of the Excise Department and chairman of the GLO committee, explained that some officials are already withdrawing a salary from the government, with lottery selling only to be allowed for government workers who earn a very low salary in order to supplement their income. 

He said: “We will compare the list with payroll information from the Comptroller General’s Department, and suspend lottery-selling rights of some officials. This process will take three months.”

Moreover, the director general also revealed that the list will be cross examined alongside a second document, courtesy of the Department of Provincial Administration, in order to ensure that deceased officials’ right to sell lottery is not being used by others and that officials are not selling or nominating others to exercise their lottery-selling right.

The plan is set to be proposed to the Government Lottery Committee on August 19, with Anantasilp revealing that the initial process will see the GLO will all lottery sellers by setting up a committee in each province, which in turn will be headed by the respective provincial governor.

The director general concluded: “This move will cut down on the number of fraudulent lottery sellers and solve the problem of speculation, which makes the price of lottery tickets so expensive.

“We expect this move to help lottery sellers buy lotteries directly from the office instead of having to go through middlemen. We will also suspend the right of lottery sellers who violate regulations.”