Thailand’s over-a-decade long online lottery saga, pitting Loxley Public Company against the Government Lottery Office (GLO), came to an end today when the Supreme Administrative Court ordered the GLO to pay Loxley 1.65 billion baht in compensation for the failed project.
The compensation is divided into 1.04 billion baht in damages and the rest to cover expenses incurred to maintain the lottery machines until the GLO fulfils its obligations under the contract.
On June 28th, 2018, the Administrative Court ordered the GLO to pay Loxley 945 million baht in compensation, plus 7.5% annual interest, for the delay in the implementation of the online lottery project. The company, however, appealed the verdict to the Supreme Administrative Court.
In the verdict, the Supreme Administrative Court said that Loxley had fully complied with the terms of the contract, by installing 3,000 lottery ticket dispensers on time, and had installed the rest of them in accordance with the GLO’s instructions.
The company also helped train lottery dealers in the use of the machines and handed over all 6,761 of them to the GLO, which formally inspected and received them.
The court ruled that the GLO had neither complained that Loxley had breached any of the terms of the contract nor notified the company to start the online lottery ticket dispensing service five years after the completion of the installation of the dispensers.
The court also noted that the GLO had not exercised its right to terminate the contract which, the court found to be grounds to cancel the contract as requested by Loxley, effective April 7th, 2011.
Loxley GTECH Technology, which is a joint venture between Loxley and an American gaming system provider, IGT Global Solutions, entered into a contract with the GLO to install 6,761 lottery dispensers across Thailand in 2005. The company developed the gaming system and handed over all the machines to the GLO, which were formally received in 2008. It also provided training for lottery dealers.
