Activists make lottery demands
About 30 students yesterday urged the government to review the Government Lottery Office Bill to ensure it will work to reduce people's interest in all forms of lottery in the long run.
Their demands were listed in an open letter addressed to Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont. The activists gathered at Government House at 7.45am to submit their letter. According to their demands, the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) should establish an ad-hoc committee to review the bill and listen to the opinions of people, academics and non-governmental organisations. They also demanded the bill should be amended to dissuade the buying of lottery tickets. In addition, the activists demanded the Government Lottery Office (GLO) board include specialists as board members who would be expected to help deter people from buying tickets. Another demand was that mechanisms to monitor the GLO's operations be put in place to ensure transparency. "For example, the GLO should submit its annual report to Parliament or be subject to audit by an outsider," the activists demanded. The activists also called on the government to introduce tangible measures aimed at reducing people's interest in lotteries and to reduce the number of draws for savings lotteries by the Government Savings Bank and the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives. "Any speculation on winning lottery numbers should be banned. And running underground lottery operations should be brought into the jurisdiction of anti-money-laundering laws," they said.
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