Authorities pledge to enforce all applicable laws -- including anti-money laundering regulations -- against Bluedragon Lottery Co, which is being investigated for selling overpriced lottery tickets on its online platform.
Seksakol Atthawong, an aide to the prime minister who chairs a sub-committee looking into the irregular pricing of lottery tickets, said he will meet the director of the Government Lottery Office and assistant national police chief, Surachate Hakparn, to discuss the matter.
If authorities found evidence of wrong-doing, the company will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, Mr Seksakol said. Many tickets sold through their website also had their barcodes blurred out, which made it impossible to verify the authenticity of the tickets, he said. This raises concerns that one ticket could have been sold multiple times to unsuspecting customers.
"The anti-money laundering law will be used to investigate the company's financial transactions and find out who else was involved," Mr Seksakon said. Other laws will also be looked at, such as the consumer protection and tax laws.
He said the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society will be asked to shut the company's site down if it is found to be engaging in fraudulent practices. Pol Lt Gen Surachate previously said the police were planning to charge Bluedragon Lottery Co on April 1 over accusations that the company sold overpriced tickets on its online platform.
Last Friday, police raided Bluedragon Lottery's headquarters in Nonthaburi's Pak Kret district and its subsidiary in Loei's Muang district and seized 2 million lottery tickets over allegations that the firm sold overpriced tickets online.
The police were tipped off that the company had purchased more than 2 million tickets using quotas allocated to licenced vendors.
The tickets were then sold online, a move that distorted the kingdom's lottery pricing mechanism and drove prices above the 80-baht legal limit, police said. The government has battled for years against lottery ticket over-pricing. On Saturday, Pachara Messiyaporn, 29, an executive of Bluedragon, dismissed claims against the company.
