The Government Lottery Office (GLO) plans to add 2 million more lottery tickets to its digital distribution platform for the Aug 1 draw, because of the high demand for tickets sold electronically.
All 5.1 million tickets distributed through the Pao Tang app for the July 16 draw sold out in just over a day as of Sunday, the fastest sale yet since the launch of the digital distribution system last month, said Lawaron Saengsanit, director-general of the Revenue Department in his capacity as chairman of the GLO's board.
When the government lottery via the mobile app was first launched at the beginning of June, all 5.1 million digitally formatted tickets were sold out in five days. Sales for the next draw took only three days for all 5.1 million tickets to be sold out, he said.
The total number of buyers recorded in the first and second sales was 1.5 million and 1 million respectively, while the number of buyers recorded for the latest draw was about 908,000, he said.
This is an indication that each buyer tends to buy more tickets, he said.
"The latest sales were faster than expected and reflect the demand for lottery tickets that are sold for 80 baht a piece," he said.
A new evaluation will be conducted later to determine the demand for these digitally formatted lottery tickets after more tickets are added, he said.
If demand continues to grow, between 1 and 2 million more tickets will be added for the following draws
A balance still needs to be maintained between the number of lottery tickets distributed the conventional way through licensed lottery vendors and those sold via the mobile app, he said.
It is unlikely to impact paper ticket sales much, said Assoc Prof Thanawat Polvichai, a member of the GLO board.
