Marrying lottery sellers can face jail terms

From the Sidelines

Vendors who sell "married" lottery tickets will be the target of 13 inspectors from the National Lottery and could face up to a year in prison.

Depending on your take you can call the Lotteria Panama’s biggest industry, national sport, entertainment, or voluntary tax donation.
Twice a week, sharp on time at 1 p.m. the draw becomes the focus of scores of thousands of citizens, tuning into TV or radio to discover the winning numbers.
The Loteria raises money for the state, various charities and the printers of the tickets, the latter being the big winners. gives employment to hundreds of ticket sellers, who vary from joyful to harbingers of doom.
It is largely funded by the less affluent members of society, but often when handing over their quarters or dollars, they find that to purchase their favorite two figure number they have to also purchase a ticket with a higher number.
“Investors” in the Wednesday or Friday draw tend to favor low numbers, and some sellers turn to “marrying” to push sales. If for example your favorite number is 11, the seller, usually of the sour faced variety, will scowl, and point at the high numbers. With each number 11, you will be forced to buy a higher number.
Now the Lottery management is out to stop the practice by attempting to enforce a law introduced to protect poorer citizens in the early years of the Omar Torrijos military dictatorship.
A statement from the Lottery agency says that properly identified, in some outlets in the capital city will be following up on Decree 57 of March 17, 1970 which says that sellers of "married" tickets face from 15 days to one year in prison and fines of $10,000.
A genuine opportunity to clean up an illegal activity ,or another avenue for coima (bribery)?