There are only two legal ways to gamble in Thailand. One is the lottery, the other one is horse racing. With such a limited number of options, many Thailand citizens take advantage of the lottery. After all, horse racing requires more information, studying, and time. Meanwhile, choosing the numbers and checking Thai lottery results takes only a couple of minutes.
How Does It Work?
You can buy a lottery ticket from a street vendor. It’s easy to spot them. They carry a brown wooden box strapped to the bicycle. When you buy a lottery ticket, don’t be surprised when the vendor hands you two. All Thai lottery tickets are sold in doubles. Both tickets have the same numbers, allowing you to double the prize.
A lottery ticket should cost 80 baht. For a long while, vendors have been pumping the price up so the tourists would pay up to 120 baht. However, in 2015, the government capped the cost at 80 baht, creating large fines for anyone who doesn’t maintain it.
Thai citizens are highly prone to number superstition. Before the price was capped, tickets that contained “lucky” numbers were more expensive. Similarly, tickets with “unlucky numbers” were offered with discounts.
How To Choose Lottery Numbers Like Thais
Thai lottery players are very careful about choosing the right numbers. For example, they never use numbers from a date of someone’s death or numbers from the license plate of a recently crashed car. They seek guidance for choosing lucky numbers in nature around them.
They may see a dog with two spots on its ear and decide that “2” is their lucky number for the day. Similarly, they may see the shape of a figure on a tree bark and take it as one of the lottery numbers. If they see a rat, they definitely use number “1”. If they encounter a big snake, the lucky number to use is 5. A small snake is number 6.
How Big Are The Prizes?
While you can score a big jackpot when playing the Thai lottery, compared to other lotteries on the planet, it’s pretty small. Three million baht is the largest prize you can get if you win the lottery, which is the equivalent of $90,000. Compared to EuroMillions or Powerball, the figure is minuscule.
On the brighter side, the odds of winning a Thai lottery are better than for EuroMillions or Powerball.
Before 2015, Thai lottery players could match two more numbers to get a lottery bonus of 30 million baht. However, the bonus was discontinued at the same time the ticket price cap was introduced.
Thai lottery has one of the lowest payout ratios in the world, 60 percent. Worldwide averages are 74% for bingo, 81% for horseracing, and 98% for blackjack.
How To Find Out The Results?
The lottery drawing happens on the first and sixteenth of every month. The results are available online and on TV. A special TV show which announces the results starts at 3 pm, gluing thousands of citizens to the TV screens. The winning lottery numbers appear a few minutes before the show ends (at about 4 pm).
If you have a winning ticket, you need to go to the local Provincial Office of the Comptroller General’s Department. There is at least one such office in each province. Before claiming the prize, you need to pay 0.5% tax. You can also redeem the ticket at the shops but the fee is substantially higher.
Is There An Illegal Lottery In Thailand?
Illegal lotto in Thailand thrives regardless of the strict laws. In each province, you are bound to find a lottery with better odds than the official lotto. The illegal lottery has the same six-number draw as the legal one.
You can win more money and avoid paying taxes. However, you face the risk of not getting your winnings. In order to avoid the risks, look for a registered lotto vendor.
