The three-digit N3 lottery run by the Government Lottery Office (GLO) may be discontinued as it struggles to compete with underground versions.
According to Deputy Finance Minister Julapun Amornvivat, the N3 lottery was launched in November 2024 to address illegal underground versions, but it appears to have had little effect.
Underground lottery tickets are cheaper than N3 tickets. Instead of cutting illegal lottery sales, N3 has reduced sales of the GLO's main product -- the traditional six-digit lottery -- as customers are now allocating part of their budget to purchase N3 tickets.
Mr Julapun said the GLO may need to develop a new product to attract underground players back to the legal lottery system.
N3 buyers can choose any number from 000 to 999, and many prefer to select repeating digits for each position, he said.
This differs from the traditional six-digit government lottery (L6), where all six digits are pre-determined, limiting buyers to the available numbers.
N3 offers four types of prizes, and draws take place on the 1st and 16th of each month, using results from the L6 lottery as a reference, along with additional special prizes. The prize distribution is calculated based on the sales revenue for each draw.
A source from the Finance Ministry who requested anonymity said for the April 1 draw, N3 sales tallied 980,337 tickets, continuing a decline from the initial test sales, which exceeded 1 million tickets.
N3 tickets are sold for 20 baht each at 1,805 designated sales points nationwide. Purchases must be made through the Pao Tang mobile app and collected at sales points.
Underground lotteries in Thailand are estimated to be worth between 100 billion and 300 billion baht annually. The government wants to capture a portion of this market through the N3 lottery.
