In love with the lottery – The Thai obsession with the national lottery

Thais love their national lottery. On the first and sixteenth of each month the lottery numbers are announced and people’s favourite numbers either come up, or they don’t – usually not.

You will see the lottery ticket vendors either on the pavement or wandering through restaurants selling a once in a lifetime dream of winning the lottery. The National Statistical Office of Thailand reveals that 47% of Thai families played lottery and lotto in 2017, up from 11% eight years earlier. On average a Thai family spends 4,660 baht per year on the lottery.

Thais can spend quite a long time combing over the available tickets in search of their ‘magic’ numbers.

Not surprisingly, Thais on lower incomes (below 15,000 baht per month) are almost twice as likely to buy a lottery ticket than those earning over 15,000 baht per month.

It’s all about hope and dreams and little about real maths. The actual chance of winning first prize in the Thai lottery are 0.0001%. In other words, unlikely.

In total, about a quarter of Thais buy lottery and lotto tickets, translating into a combined 250 billion baht annually. Lottery buyers are classified into three groups – occasional gamblers spending around 225 baht in tickets each month, active gamblers spending up to 420 baht per month and serious lottery players spending 800 baht per month.

Based on these figures, TMB Analytics calculate that if occasional gamblers save their spending on lottery tickets for 50 years, they will be able to buy a nice health insurance plan, active gamblers will be able to afford a compact car, while lottery addicts may get a nice house instead of piles of useless lottery tickets in their trash bins.

The Thaiger publishes the Thai lottery numbers on its Thai language Thaiger page on the first and sixteenth of every month.

SOURCE: ThaiPBS World’s Economic News Desk