Thai aunty sends underground lottery numbers to police group chat by mistake, gets arrested for gambling

Police arrested a 69 year old aunty from Trat province, eastern Thailand, for gambling after she sent her desired underground lottery numbers to the wrong group chat on Line. She sent the picture to the police.

On Friday, the Line group “Smart Safety Zone Mueang Trat Police Station” – which has 439 members – received a suspicious message from 69 year old Kinkan. The message was a photo of her entry into the illegal underground lottery. A police officer in the group replied, “Did you send this to the wrong group?”

Another member of the group said…

“Did you send to the wrong group? You might want to delete it quickly. Very dangerous. Lots of police officers in this group.”

However, Kinkan never deleted the message. She said she couldn’t find her phone after that.

Pol. Cap. Lertsak Rattanaphitak, a commissioned duty officer at Mueang Trat Police Station, tracked down the gambler and invited her to the station on Saturday at 9.15pm.

Police charged Aunty Kinkan with “illegal gambling (underground lottery).” Kinkan confessed to the charge.

Aunty Kinkan said she was trying to buy underground lottery tickets by sending a picture of her desired entry to a woman called Bell, but accidentally sent it to the police Line group. She said her phone is broken which is why it happened.

There are two types of lottery in Thailand – government and underground. The Government Lottery Office (GLO), which is legal, holds two draws per month on the 1st and 16th. Tickets cost 80 baht.

The government lottery is extremely popular and the first prize is six million baht. Whereas, tickets for the underground lottery – which is illegal – can be bought for far cheaper. The payouts are less if you gamble less, but the chance of winning is allegedly higher, making the illegal lottery an attractive option for Thais, who statistically, love gambling.

Last week, a government lottery winner laid out 100 pig’s heads in front of the famous 30-metre-tall Buddha statue at Wat Klang Bang Phra Temple in Nakhon Pathom province in central Thailand.