Malinee Saeung chooses
her preferred lottery number.
Surasak Huasoon
Gamblers may be happy with new lower prices for government-lottery
tickets, but ticket vendors in Pattaya are not.
The National Council for Peace and Order early this month ordered
lottery-ticket prices set at 80 baht in Bangkok and surrounding
provinces, capping prices at 90 baht in other states. In response, the
reaction from many ticket vendors was simply to quit.
Many ticket shops have closed in Pattaya and there are noticeably fewer
vendors roaming the streets. Former sellers said they simply can’t make
enough profit at 80 baht to make it worth the effort to sell the jackpot
chances.
Kimthong Saelee, 58, said she typically sells ticket sets at 90 baht
each, verses single-chance slips, which sell for 80 baht but cost 78
baht each. A 2-baht profit simply isn’t worth her time, she said.
She said most vendors dealing in slips are from outside the province and
have low expenses, traveling, for example, on bicycle rather than
motorbike or car.
She said she’s content to stick to selling the sets as she has regular
customers and has no problem selling out her usual stock of 1,000 sets.
Malinee Saeung, 64, said she was happy to see the lower prices, as she
was buying sets at up to 120 baht each. Now she said, she can get them
for 90 baht.
