Police raided the headquarters of Bluedragon Lottery Co and seized 2 million lottery tickets after it was found to have sold overpriced tickets via its online platform.
The crackdown took place at the company's premises in Pak Kret district of Nonthaburi as well as its subsidiary in Muang district of Loei.
Seksakon Atthawong, an assistant to the prime minister who chairs the sub-committee on tackling overpriced lottery tickets, collaborated with Pol Lt Gen Surachate Hakparn, the assistant national police chief, and several agencies including Provincial Police Region 1 and the Government Lottery Office (GLO) to mastermind the raids and seize the tickets.
The operation was launched after police were tipped off that the company had purchased more than 2 million tickets from the quotas allocated to officially licensed vendors. It then offered these on its platform, which distorted the lottery price mechanism and drove the price above the 80 baht defined by the government.
The investigation is ongoing. If the firm's guilt is confirmed, legal action will be brought against all involved including the revocation of their lottery quota, Pol Lt Gen Surachate said.
A source said the Bluedragon platform, developed by 100 Stars Co Ltd, was used as an online tool to help control the capital fund and promote the ticket sales of lottery vendors, while the marketing operations are overseen by Wanmai Agency Co Ltd.
The platform took off due to the pandemic, which affected the sales volume of lottery vendors.
Bluedragon Lottery Co posted a message on its Facebook account defending itself against the allegation that it had helped drive up the price of lottery tickets.
