Big lottery jackpots set to be abolished

The interim government looks set to abolish the big jackpot prize - of at least Bt20 million - awarded in official lotteries under the previous administration.

The news has upset many lottery agents and customers.

Charan Pakdithanakul, the new permanent secretary at the Justice Ministry, will ask the government to curtail the jackpot.

He said yesterday the jackpot was a social vice that lured a lot of poor people into gambling instead of paying attention to work.

"The jackpot leads people astray. It has always been promoted as the nation's benefit provider, although it is actually a vice and no one organisation takes responsibility for it," Charan said.

The two- and three-digit lottery began three years ago as the brainchild of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Its huge jackpot helped to promote the sale of tickets. Thaksin claimed the government could bring in money that poor people would give to underground lottery bosses anyway then use the cash to help the poor.

But critics said Thaksin abused the lottery cash by using it to shore up his popularity among the poor.

Bang-orn, a lottery agent in Bangkok's Lak Si district who declined to give her second name, said people would buy illegal tickets if the jackpot was taken away.

"Without the big prize to attract buyers, they will turn to underground lotteries that always offer them about a 20-per-cent discount and let them buy illegal tickets on credit," she said.

She did not believe Thais would quit gambling for any reason, including abolition of the jackpot.

"Thai people will never give up on gambling - they will only change the way they take a chance," Bang-orn said.

Tassanee Thanomrattana, 50, an agent on Bangkok's Rama II Road, said she had prepared herself for anything happening after the political change.

Although she would prefer not to be an agent, as it went against her religious principles, she had no choice. She started selling tickets after her family's grocery shop started to struggle due to the aggressive expansion of giant foreign chain stores.

"It's the main way to earn money for my family," she said.

Regular lottery ticket buyer Patcharin Chaimongkol, 25, said she would miss having the chance to win Bt20 million. But she would continue buying tickets - in the hope of winning some Bt1,000 prizes instead.

"It will mean I am not so excited when listening to the lottery result," she said. Business owner Chuleeporn Yaemnin, 25, another regular buyer, said the jackpot didn't make her gamble as she knew the probability of winning the prize was so slight. She only hoped for a small prize.

"Before making a decision to abolish the reward or not, I beg them to ask people first. The opinion of decision-makers should not be the only factor," she said.

But the president of a Chiang Mai association that assists people with disabilities, said he supported abolishment of the jackpot prize, which he blamed for destroying the career of disabled people who sold tickets in the six-digit lottery.

People had favoured the two- and three-digit lottery because of the jackpot, which caused sales of six-digit lottery tickets to drop by more than 50 per cent.

Several hundred handicapped people who sold lottery tickets had had to change their job. Some became two- and three-digit lottery sub-agents.

The Nation

Underground lottery money be frozen : Charan

Charan Pakdithanakul, the Justice Ministry's acting permanent secretary, Thursday pushed for the idea of using anti money laundering laws against underground lottery operators.

"If the government lists the underground lottery operations as an offence under antimoney laundering laws, underground operators will face asset seizures and this will finally doom the underground lottery," Charan said.

On Thursday, he suggested that the big jackpots - at least Bt20 million for each semi monthly draw of the government's two and threedigit lottery - should be abolished. The grand prizes were a vicious means to seduce people into buying more lottery tickets, he said.

The administration led by Thaksin Shinawatra failed to consult people and social activists when it launched the two and threedigit lotteries together with the big jackpots as a countermeasure against organised lotteries three years ago, he said.

"We don't need the jackpot to crack down on underground lotteries. We can use antimoney laundering laws," Charan said yesterday.

The criminal code only imposed fines, which was not enough to slow the underground lottery operators down, he added.

Under the previous government, a proposal to add gambling, including lotteries, to the list of offences under the AntiMoney Laundering Act of 1999 was shot down in Parliament. Jaran believes some politicians with ties to illegal bookmaking syndicates were behind the move.

The new government should reevaluate the merits of its two and threedigit lottery scheme. "It has both good and bad points," he said.

If the government keeps the lotteries, civic organisations and people's networks should be enlisted to ensure that sales proceeds were distributed properly.

The lotteries should serve just as an alternative to people who want to play games of chance.

"But please don't promote them," he said, adding that he was hoping to launch a crackdown on gambling dens soon.

Phra Phayom Kallayano, the oft quoted preacher and abbot of Suan Kaew Temple in Nonthaburi, said the media should stop reporting on jackpot winners because it fanned vain hopes among lottery customers.

The national two and threedigit lotteries together with the big jackpots should continue as a way to keep people from falling for local versions, he said.

"To discourage people from buying lottery tickets, they should carry warning messages like those on cigarette packs," the monk added.

The Nation