INDOCHINA 29
TOURIST STATISTICS DATABASE BY USING ATTA’S MEMBERS SERVICES DURING PEROID 1JANUARY - 10 DECEMBER 2016
Australia - NZ
8%
America
30%
Africa
-21%
Europe
6%
The Middle East -10%
18%
Russia & CIS
ASIA -4% AEC CHINA
ticket prices have failed. But Visanu says the problem lies in the GLO assuming the lottery is similar to other products and that raising the supply of tickets will lead to lower retail prices. “So the GLO produced 80 then 90 million tickets per round until it reached 100 million tickets. But the price doesn’t go down, because if you issue more pairs of lottery tickets then you are providing more opportunity to the Five Tigers to group more tickets into eight ticket packs,” he said.
Premium sets The lottery office, in a move seen by analysts as a further effort to undermine the syndicates, said it was examining the issue of “repacking” of tickets into sets that are then sold at a premium. A strategy was to alter the timing when the tickets would be sent to the middlemen making it impossible for them to repackage the sets in time for the bi-monthly draw. In a move reflecting past efforts the
Finance Ministry in mid-June last year said it was planning a government lottery bill that would clear the way for introduction of an online lottery as well as requiring vendors to be registered.
No timetable The GLO says plans for the online lottery are going ahead but no date has been set. Visanu says the key to undermining the influence of the Five Tiger wholesale syndicates lay in applying the online lottery. This, he said, would undermine the business model of the syndicates who purchase tickets of popular numbers and repackage at a higher retail rate. In the online lottery buyers would only purchase two and three digits lottery or lotto tickets with the prize money pooled across all the winning tickets. Analysts say there is longstanding resistance to the introduction of online lottery from powerful interests who earn significant income under the existing quota allocation system.
14%
10%
Tourism spending tipped to rise
Thailand is targeting tourism revenue of 2.71 trillion baht in 2017, an 8.2 percent gain from 2016, according to the Tourism and Sports Ministry. Of the revised target 1.78 trillion will come from foreign tourists, a gain of 8.5 percent and with 930 billion baht from domestic tourists.
Northern Thais bet on beetle battles
Northern Thailand has just held its annual round of rhinoceros beetle fighting contests. According to media reports, bets on the contests can range from THB100 ($3) to THB50,000. The matches are split into rounds and the beetles push each other with their horns. The winner will cause its opponent to flee or will break its horn.
Asia Gaming Briefings | February 2017