Myanmar Junta Plans Digital Lottery to Shore Up State Revenue
- Government in discussion with at least five private firms
- Sanctions, economic slump shrink state revenue, spokesman says
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Myanmar’s military regime plans to start an online lottery in the next two months as it hunts for new revenue streams to offset a slump in tax collections from an economy battered by the pandemic and the exit of foreign companies following the coup.
The digital raffle will be started in partnership with private companies, and the authorities are in talks with several local and foreign firms, according to Zaw Min Tun, the lead spokesman for the State Administration Council. The initiative will supplement the government’s existing physical lottery business, and participants can use bank accounts and other authorized payment channels, he added.