Kong Salak Plus chief opts for quick end to latest case but still faces money laundering charges
The operator of the online lottery platform Kong Salak Plus has pleaded guilty and agreed to pay fines of nearly 2.7 million baht for selling overpriced lottery tickets and selling tickets to people younger than 20 years old.
Panthawat “Nott” Nakwisut entered the plea on Friday after public prosecutors arraigned him, his company Lottery Online and other executives of the company at the Bangkok North Municipal Court at the Government Complex.
The defendants confessed that since April 1, 2021, they had sold government lottery tickets without separately calculating their service charges. The court fined them 2.67 million baht based on 510 offences.
Mr Panthawat said he decided to plead guilty to bring the case to a quick conclusion. He also said he had not decided yet if he would reopen his online lottery platform as there were other legal cases still outstanding against him.
When he first reported to police to answer the charges last month, Mr Panthawat maintained that he sold lottery tickets at 80 baht but there were service fees because he had to find tickets and provide services to customers. When buying tickets online, customers clicked a button to agree that they were willing to pay service fees, he said at the time.
Those who filed the complaints against his company were not his customers, but officials from the Government Lottery Office (GLO), he argued.
Earlier on Friday, prosecutor Supachai Sawetkittikul said that if the defendants had chosen to plead not guilty, the trial would take time because there were more than 300 witnesses.
Mr Panthawat, 43, had built a reputation for quickly contacting lottery prize winners after lottery numbers were drawn and delivering the money to them at home, earning praise from online lottery customers.
He is still facing charges from the Department of Special Investigation in relation to suspicious transfers of huge sums to him. The charges include money laundering.
The DSI said it had evidence of 53 million baht transferred from an online gambling website and was also looking at 39 other transfers totalling about one billion baht into his account.
Mr Panthawat has denied all the charges.