Thai authorities are offering huge cash prizes for Olympic medalists, but plan to pay it out slowly to prevent what we Americans might call the MC Hammer effect.

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand is offering its athletes big cash incentives for Olympic gold medals — but will pay out in installments to stop them squandering it.

Gold medalists will earn 10 million baht ($314,000), silver medal winners will take six million baht, while a bronze is worth four million baht — sizable sums in a country where the minimum wage is just 203 baht ($6) a day.

However, half of the money will be paid over a 20-year period to prevent Thai Olympians, many of whom are from poor backgrounds, from frittering it away.

“We don’t want them to spend it all at once, they might need this money when they get old,” Thai Olympic committee member Charoen Wattanasin told Reuters.

“We will give it to them every month. Most of them manage their finances but there have been a few bad examples in the past.”

Via Yahoo! News