Online lottery supported in poll

An opinion poll by Suan Dusit Rajabhat University has found that the majority of people, or 60.24% support the Thai government's online lottery project, reasoning that it would generate income for the state to use in developing the country and solve the problem of underground lottery.

However, 34.94% of the respondents oppose it, saying that selling tickets electronically would only encourage gambling, raise questions about transparency in the government and would be against Thailand's image of being a Buddhist country.

Nearly half or 48.19 per cent of the respondents believed the online lottery would help reduce the number of people addicted to the underground lottery, but 43.38% thought otherwise.

1,232 people took part in the poll conducted between June 16 to 19.