List of lottery sellers reviewed in bid to end speculation
The Government Lottery Office (GLO) is reviewing the list of 200,000 registered lottery sellers so it can weed out government and state enterprise officers selling lotteries as they are already withdrawing a salary from the government, said Pachara Anantasilp, director general of the Excise Department and chairman of the GLO committee.
“We will compare the list with payroll information from the Comptroller General’s Department, and suspend lottery-selling rights of some officials,” he said, adding that officials earning a very low salary will be allowed to sell lotteries to supplement their income. “This process will take three months,” he said.
Pachara said the office will also compare the list with that of the Department of Provincial Administration to ensure 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.
“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,” he said.
He added that the GLO will screen all lottery sellers by setting up a committee in each province, which will be led by the respective provincial governor.
“We expect this move to help lottery sellers buy lotteries directly from the office instead of having to go through middlemen, he said. “We will also suspend the right of lottery sellers who violate regulations.”
Pachara said this plan will be proposed to the Government Lottery Committee on August 19.