More than 2.4 million digital lottery tickets were sold yesterday (Thursday), the first day of Thailand’s online lottery ticket sales, via the ”Pao Tang” application, by the Government Lottery Office (GLO) in a bid to address the overpricing of lottery tickets by unscrupulous vendors.

According to Lawaron Saengsanit, chairman of the GLO, 612,141 people bought 2,460,723 digital lottery tickets at 80-baht each, out of a total of 5,279,500 tickets available, between 6am and 11pm last night.

He said the public response to the online sale is encouraging, but whether digital sales will be increased in the future will be considered carefully, because the GLO wants to make sure that the conventional way of ticket sales, by vendors, will not be affected.

Yesterday’s sale was a good start, he said, adding that buyers can buy more tickets and can claim their prizes via application without delay.

Meanwhile, GLO director Lt-Col Noon Sansanakhom said the system will automatically notify buyers, via the application, by 6pm on the lottery draw day if they win a prize.

The winners can have the prizes wired into their Krung Thai Bank accounts, which are tied to the Pao Tang app or, in the future, other bank accounts. The winners will be charged 1% of the prize money plus 0.5% of stamp duty.

Alternatively, the lottery winners can claim their prizes at the GLO office, but they are required to notify the GLO when they will arrive to claim them, because officials will have to present them with real lottery tickets to enable them to claim the prizes. In this case, the winners will be charged only the 0.5% of stamp duty.

Winners who have chosen to have the prize money wired into their bank accounts will receive their money within 12 hours of notification.

The GLO director assured winners that they will receive their prize money, because the system has been checked and proved to be working without problems.

He made clear that all the lottery tickets put up for sale online belong to the vendors and that the GLO’s role is to facilitate ticket sales, to ensure that they are sold at the official price of 80 baht each.