A Thai vendor sells lottery to a Thai soldier and policemen while they take a relaxed stance in downtown Bangkok during the 2010 Bangkok Cleanup Day, May 23, 2010
On Wednesday, the Thai bourse shut down its operations after Redshirt protesters set fire to the SET building in Bangkok.
In Burma, where the unrest in Thailand has received scant attention in the state-run media, the result was the sudden halt of an informal lottery that is a major income generator for many. From the poor to underpaid civil servants and members of the struggling middle class, many people in Burma earn a living off of sales of the tickets.
“All of us rely on this gambling for our daily income,” said one dealer in Mandalay.
The winning numbers in the lottery are based on the last two digits of the SET Index, and are picked four times a day: at 9:30 in the morning, 12:10 in the afternoon, 2:00 pm and 4:30 pm, when the stock exchange closes.
The updated prices are televised on Thai channels Modernine TV and ITV, available to cable subscribers from Thailand's MCOT Public Company.
Although some people were able to follow events in Thailand on cable television, few expected the standoff in Bangkok to result in the closure of one of Southeast Asia's most important stock exchanges.
“We were at a complete loss when they burned down the stock exchange building. What could we do? We just stopped our business. We can't force those who owe us money to pay it back,” said one ticket dealer in Rangoon, explaining that many of their customers buy the tickets on credit.
Besides the two-digit lottery, there are two other types of illegal gambling that are widely practiced in Burma: betting on football and a three-digit lottery based on Thailand's official lottery.
According to one Rangoon-based economist, gambling transactions in Burma could be worth as much as five to ten billion kyat (US $5-10 million) a day.
Source: The Irrawady
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please share your sure win tips and lucky numbers. Comments need to be moderated and will not appear immediately. All Spam comments will be deleted.