A lottery is a gamble: players buy tickets, pin their hopes on a sequence of numbers and hope that the combination they choose will match that drawn by a machine. The odds of winning are astronomical, but that’s part of the appeal for many. It’s a game of fate, faith, imagination and superstition, all woven into Thai culture. It is not a form of gambling that most outsiders understand, but it is an integral part of the country’s religious, economic and social fabric.
In a nation where Buddhism is the majority religion, the lottery is more than a chance to win big prizes: it’s an expression of good deeds rewarded and a way to create new networks of patrons and spirits. “It aligns with Buddhist belief systems in which positive actions are rewarded,” says Dr. Sungsidh Piriyarangsan, Dean of the College of Social Innovation at Rangsit University. Lottery participants often make merit at temples, visit gurus online and consult with monks to receive lottery tips and formulas.
Despite its ubiquity, the lottery is not without controversy. In recent decades, the lottery has been protested as a symbol of political corruption. In 1973, activists burned down the GLO building in protest of military dictators’ use of lottery profits for personal gain. And in March 2014, Luang Pu Buddha Issara, a politically active monk, led a crowd of farmers to the lottery building where they dumped trucks of rice at the entrance in a demand that the government use lottery revenues to pay farmers.
Regardless of the political tension, the lottery remains an important source of revenue and the most popular form of entertainment in Thailand. The government allocates no less than 28% of ticket sales as prize money, and the lottery has become an increasingly popular way for residents to invest their hard-earned cash.
The lottery is also a critical employment opportunity for people with disabilities. According to Don Willcox, co-founder of the Foundation to Encourage the Potential of Disabled Persons in Chiang Mai, lottery selling allows disabled people to earn a decent salary while working at their own pace. It’s a far better alternative to traditional jobs, which often don’t require accommodations for people with physical or cognitive limitations.
Bom’s intricate method for choosing lottery numbers is a first glimpse into the complex web of beliefs, rituals and faith that underlie this societal phenomenon. For him, the lottery is more than a game of chance; it’s an investment in a culturally unifying phenomenon that brings together Thais of all walks of life and allows them to rethink their worlds, even if only for a brief moment.
