House passes weekly retirement lottery bill
The bill, which amends the National Savings Fund Act, received 427 votes of support, with one against, three absentions and four no-votes.
Under the legislation, retirement lottery tickets will be sold at 50 baht each for weekly draws at 5pm on Fridays. There will be five first prizes of one million baht and 10,000 second prizes of 1,000 baht to each winner. Won prizes will be transferred to the lucky buyers' PromptPay account.
The money people who do not win spend on the lottery will be automatically deposited into their savings account at age 60. They will get all the spent money back plus returns from the National Savings Fund.
People older than 60 years can also buy the retirement lottery and they will get back their money plus returns back in five years. If they have died in the meantime, the beneficiaries of their estate will inherit the money
Before the vote on Wednesday, most MPs spoke in favour of the retirement lottery legislation, saying that Thais who love to buy lottery tickets could simultaneously build up savings.
Deputy Finance Minister Paopoom Rojanasakul told the House that ticket purchases will be capped at 3,000 baht a month for each person, to prevent the rich from buying up the lottery and give equal access to everyone.
The retirement lottery will benefit economic development, he said. The government plans to launch it in the fourth quarter of this year.
The bill now goes to the Senate.
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