Lottery lures students, poor
Published: 25/06/2011 at 12:00 AM
Bangkok Post: Newspaper section: News
Up to 70% of primary school and vocational school students have played the underground lottery, according to new research.
The underground lottery is also very popular in northeastern and southern provinces, said Phinit Lapthananon, a Chulalongkorn University academic who has studied behaviours associated with gambling and its impacts.
He said the underground lottery was most popular among low-income earners with salaries of less than 20,000 baht a month, non-college graduates and people aged below 24.
"An alarming statistic is that between 50 and 70% of primary school and vocational school students are underground lottery players," he said at a seminar on gambling at Chulalongkorn University yesterday.
Noppanun Wannathepsakul, a lecturer at Chulalongkorn University's economics faculty, said at the same forum that underground lottery are tools used by politicians to build reciprocal relationships with supporters.
This is because underground lottery agents need protection from those in power, including politicians and law enforcement officers, Mr Noppanun said.
Most underground lottery tycoons typically form relationships with local and national politicians and some enter politics themselves.
Others encourage their children to become politicians, he said.
Gambling in Thailand has been estimated to be worth 420 billion baht annually.
State lottery businesses account for 76 billion baht; underground lotteries, 100 billion baht; soccer-related gambling, 37 billion baht; gambling den activities, 47 billion baht; and boxing-related gambling, 30 billion baht. In 2011, 24 million people played underground lotteries, Mr Noppanun said.
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