Lottery is a form of gambling that involves drawing numbers at random to win a prize. Some governments outlaw it, while others endorse it and organize state or national lottery games. Some governments even regulate the lottery and prohibit minors from purchasing tickets. A lottery can be played either in a physical venue or online. In the latter case, a person must register with a licensed website or gaming agent in order to play the game.
In Thailand, the lottery is organized and managed by the Government Lottery Office (GLO). This is a very popular game with nearly 19.2 million people of various age groups playing every year, spending more than 76 billion baht on tickets annually. This is one of the only two forms of legal gambling allowed in the country and it’s also the only way to try your luck at winning a jackpot prize.
The GLO is a state-run entity and there’s a strict legislative framework that dictates how the lottery operates, how prizes are paid out, and what percentage of the total ticket sales will go towards supporting national causes. Ticket prices are not set by GLO but rather by wholesalers who in turn sell the tickets to retail venues and other sellers. This allows the retailers and wholesalers to add a small profit margin on top of the ticket price.
This system, however, has led to a major hike in the price of lottery tickets as brokers and retail venues have added a significant amount on top of the official ticket price to generate income. The result has been that more and more people are not able to afford the official ticket price of 80 baht. This has prompted the GLO to introduce digital lottery ticket sales through the Paotang mobile app.
The digital lottery service launched on Thursday morning and immediately proved to be a hit, with over 500,000 tickets snapped up within just a few hours. This is far more than the 110,000 buyers who bought four or five tickets during the initial sale of tickets at retail prices on June 2.
The new digital lottery services will be available through a number of different channels, including the official Paotang app, website, and mobile phone platforms. The new service will offer customers a number of convenient features, including the option to purchase tickets on the move, auto-renewal for frequent players, and credit purchases. This makes it an ideal alternative to the traditional method of buying a ticket in a physical store.
