Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing whether or not the Thai Lottery should be privatized. Now for those who are unaware, gambling is heavily, heavily regulated in Thailand to the point of virtually all gambling is a criminal offense in Thailand, albeit depending on the circumstances it might be a rather modest criminal offense but it could be a criminal citation nonetheless. That said, under limited circumstances there are situations where gambling may be legal. The Lottery is an example of this. Thailand does have a lottery system and it is run by the State is my understanding and that's what they do. They sell lottery tickets. 

Now there has been a lot of talk about this. They brought in an online system sort of that integrates with the paper system, but long story short the Lottery, there's kind of, as we will get into, there is sort of something of a monopoly. It's State run at the end of the day and as a result, it's not sort of a free market so to speak, and that is the reason for the video. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com. It was actually from the Post Bag, so it is under the Post Bag section under Lottery rethink. That is sort of the title of the post. I urge those who are watching this video, go read that in detail; some interesting opinions in there but I thought this was relevant. I'm going to quote an excerpt for our purposes. Quoting directly: "There's no reason for lotteries to be Government run, they should be open to the private sector under Government regulation just like alcoholic beverages." The poster had some more insights in there, some of which I tended to agree with, some of which I tended to not agree with.

On this question, it really is one I am kind of thinking about; is State run or for privatization better? I don't know. One thing I kind of like on a personal level about the way the Thai Lottery works right now is the fact that it has been used, and this is just anecdotal, I don't know if this is policy, but it is often used in my opinion to help some indigent folks here in Thailand, especially here in Bangkok that I have noticed, although other cities as well. You'll oftentimes see folks who have perhaps physical disabilities; you will see folks who may not otherwise be able to land like a job, like a nine to five job that will have a little business if you want, I guess that's the right word; kind of a little business that is in selling lottery tickets and they sell lottery tickets just on the street. You will often see Thai street vendors that sell lottery tickets; it is a very common scene here in Thailand. Again there is kind of a whole system behind that I am not going to get into. I don't even fully understand how it works completely but I do have to say there is something to be said for a Government Lottery that is providing if you will kind of a jobs program for people that are in a situation that's not great; again physical disabilities and they may be not living at a standard of living that quite honestly we in the West for example are used to living under and it provides those kind of folks with an income, with a livelihood. In my opinion, that is a pretty good thing, I mean all things being considered, and maybe a privatization isn't the answer in this limited circumstance. I tend to be kind of a libertarian thinking person that where possible you kind of want everything to be private, but I also believe that there are exceptions to those rules and honestly in my opinion, I am kind of a little less libertarian when you are dealing with the issue of vice and at the end of the day, gambling is a vice. It is not unlike for example alcoholic beverages which were mentioned in there and I think that there is a good public policy argument to be made for a certain level of regulation associated with that. In this circumstance it might not be a terrible idea that the Lottery is what it is or is running in the way that it's run, again because there is sort of the knock-on effect that it has a positive impact for certain folks in the economy here in the Kingdom of Thailand.