Thai lotto is one of two legal forms of gambling in Thailand and is played by over 19 million people – 28.6% of the population! Held twice each month on the first and 16th days, this lottery features top prizes of several million baht, making it an immensely popular pastime with Thai news outlets frequently publishing accounts of bizarre strategies people employ to find winning lottery numbers.
Two types of Thai lottery tickets exist – government-sponsored (TGL) and charity-sponsored (TCL). Both types cost 80 baht each and feature six-digit numbers with anti-counterfeit features such as watermarks with mythical birds such as wayupak and special chemicals that show up under ultraviolet light. Tickets are preprinted, only sold in pairs, pre-printed with lottery numbers on one part while prizes for matching all six numbers vary accordingly – first prize being the highest award, followed by second and third.
Tickets for both TGL and TCL lotteries can be found through various vendors, including some supermarkets. When purchasing tickets from vendors, typically your passport or national ID card and queue number will be required of you in order to buy tickets. When winning prizes you must present both documents to the lottery office in order to claim them; cash prizes usually awarded are paid out directly, though if using your winnings for anything else it is wiser to verify with them first that all prize money has been properly deposited into your account before leaving the office.
On this website you can see real time results of Thai Lotto draws as they happen, updated every minute or so. Results are presented both in Thai and English for easy comparison if you’re outside Thailand – even without actually being present there yourself you can still check these results online!
Thais turn to other means besides playing the Thai Lotto to select their lucky numbers. Dreams and nightmares can provide clues, while signs from nature or mysterious events could offer guidance as well – like when in Sakon Nakhon recently, local villagers gathered around a banana tree with flowers that looked similar to Naga’s head!
Thais believe that being born during the fifth lunar month or in a year of the snake brings good fortune, so keeping track of when and where you were born could influence your lottery luck. Other superstitions involve paying attention to stars and weather; sunny days signal good results while rainy clouds spell bad fortune.