General Prayut Chan-ocha sacks lottery board, becomes chairman

Thailand’s General Prayut Chan-ocha, in his capacity as head of the National Council for Peace and Order, has sacked the board of the Government Lottery Office and will set up a new board with himself as a chairman.

According to local news source Thai PBS, General Prayut also ordered the setting up of a fund called Government Lottery Fund for Social Development, which will be used to buy back unwanted or unsaleable lottery tickets from retailers to discourage them from selling lottery tickets above face value.

The fund will also be used to conduct research into social gambling to find ways of tackling addiction and other forms of anti-social behavior.

General Prayut’s move follows the resignation of Somchai Sujjapongse who quit as chairman last month due to the sheer scale of lottery tickets being sold at inflated prices.

"More stringent measures might be needed. Given the scale of the problem, a government official might not have the mandate to deal with it. A man of [higher] calibre might be able to do a better job," Somchai was quoted by the Bangkok Post as saying upon announcing his resignation.

 

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