Thai Lotto is Thailand’s official national lottery, managed by the Government Lottery Office and drawing twice every month. As one of two forms of legalised gambling in Thailand, it draws on both the first and 16th of each month and is popular with both Thais and foreigners. Each year it generates four billion baht for charities while employing disabled individuals as ticket sellers who would otherwise struggle to find work.
Although legal lotteries exist, an illegal underground market exists with illegal lotteries that is difficult to police. These parallel lotteries utilize similar numbers but add twists that increase players’ odds of success – for instance many believe spotting rare or unusual animals might portend good fortune in lottery.
Thai Lotto has also given rise to an industry of numerology experts who claim they know the secret behind selecting winning numbers. These experts often charge lottery enthusiasts thousands of baht for advice on increasing their chances of success with Thai lotto, including buying and selling tickets, analyzing results, providing predictions and offering other related services.
Though some lottery gurus may possess legitimate credentials, they may not necessarily be qualified to analyze the results of a lottery draw. There is no scientific basis for predicting lottery outcomes and most of these experts have never studied statistics or mathematics; their methods often rely on superstitions rather than hard data.
Thais regard choosing lottery numbers as both religious and ritualistic practices. Many rely on advice from friends and family as well as online lottery experts like “Thai Lottery King” or My4website that offer advice pertaining to lottery formulas. Furthermore, Thais frequently consult monks regarding their numbers since Buddhism and lottery culture are interwoven throughout Thai society.
Some see lottery as a way of building merit and creating good luck, so they are willing to make sacrifices in exchange for a chance at success. Unfortunately, others can find that dream of better life turns into a nightmare when their winnings don’t materialise – in March 2015 in Chiang Mai alone a man committed suicide after his lottery tickets failed to yield any prizes; his suicide note revealed this fact. Selling his motorcycle just to purchase tickets; even writing down what they believed would be their lucky number on themselves but ultimately none was lucky at all – when his winnings never materialised he made his final exit into despair before killing himself in March of 2015.