Thai Lotto, one of two legal forms of gambling in Thailand, takes place twice every month on the 1st and 16th. As it’s an official government lottery, your odds of success are fairly reasonable (though purchasing more tickets increases your odds). Furthermore, this event represents one of Thailand’s major revenue sources.
Thailand legalizes only two forms of gambling – horse racing and the lottery – both legally, yet despite this prohibition on most forms, a significant proportion of its 70 million-person population regularly play lottery. Organized by the Government Lottery Office (GLO), tickets purchased through this transparent system offer equal odds for winning and are tax-deductible purchases.
Tickets are pre-printed with various anti-counterfeiting features to prevent counterfeiting. For example, paper tickets feature a six-digit number and watermark of the mythical bird called a Wayupak that can be seen either with naked eye or UV light; coating chemicals cause drops of bleach to leave visible stains, making counterfeiting harder; sold in pairs typically and prize money distributed as cheque. Alternatively, local lottery agents will give out cash payments with a fee of approximately 2 baht per ticket pair sold.
Thais are famously superstitious people and always come up with innovative methods for predicting the correct lottery numbers. One such tactic involves collecting license plate numbers of vehicles involved in accidents as they believe that this indicates good luck will soon follow.
Dreams may also serve as a portent of future jackpot wins; many believe seeing or hearing certain numbers as dreams is an omen of future jackpot victories and can even have tragic repercussions, like when one man killed himself after discovering that lottery tickets he sold weren’t winners. Unfortunately, this belief can have tragic repercussions; for instance in March 2015 an elderly gentleman tragically committed suicide due to this belief.
Though somewhat strange, the Thai lottery has long been part of Thai culture. Even today, you might see street vendors carrying around an assortment of tickets attached to their bicycle. Just keep this in mind if you decide to gamble – the next big lottery jackpot may leave you disappointed; for real change to occur in your life consider giving a portion of your income towards charity instead. You can do this either through your bank or visiting Mae Nak’s Shrine on Sukhumvit Soi 77; it is believed her ghost helps those experiencing financial issues.
