Thai Lottery Lucky Numbers

Posted on October 24, 2010 by Mike

Thai Buddhist monk telling fortune

The Thai Lottery

The Thai lottery is drawn two times each month on the 1st and 16th. It is the only legal form of gambling allowed in Thailand and since Thais love to gamble it is very popular.

Needless to say getting lucky number predictions for the lottery are taken very seriously in a country that is deeply superstitious anyway. In my three years here I have experienced some of these predictive methods first hand and heard about others through local gossip and the media.

Getting your Lucky Numbers

Large Tokay Gecko thailandOne of my favourite tales is when my Thai partner counted how many times the large Tokay Gecko that lives in my home called and added the number of toes the reptile had on one foot to produce a winning combination. Yes she actually won 1000 Baht!

Equally funny, for me anyway, was a visit to a fortune telling Buddhist monk at a local temple, who for a small additional fee threw in a lottery prediction as well(that’s him above). Duen didn’t win with those numbers which probably explains why we haven’t been back to see the old boy.

In fact Buddhist temples tend to be  hot beds for Thai lottery predictions, on my recent Unseen Thailand trip, I visited no less than three temples that actually had a roulette wheel type machine in the wihan.  Here the faithful can spin the wheel of fortune after they have offered their prayers to the Buddha to get their lucky lottery numbers.

Lucky number sticks in Thai templeMost temples also have a “lucky number pot” which is often red in  colour and contains bamboo sticks with different numbers on them you will also find  white printed sheets on a board nearby which are numbered to correspond with the numbers on the sticks.

Participants will shake the container and eject one stick, which having tried it a few times  is easier said than done. The shaken number is then matched to the sheet and bingo you have your prediction.   Now this is more about your future fortune but needless to say the numbers you throw make ideal lottery numbers too.

Other Thai lottery prediction methods include rubbing “sacred” objects to see if a number appears and looking for signs in just about any circumstance or situation.

Thai Lottery Tickets Sales and Prizes

A lottery ticket sales person at temple ThailandLottery ticket sales people are everywhere in Thailand, this photograph was taken in a temple at Samut Sakhon as we were preparing for a religious service.  Originally this was an occupation reserved for disabled people but this seems not to be the case now.

The tickets themselves come in two parts(same number on each) and cost 80 Baht to which is added the agents fee so the actual cost is between 100-110 Baht. You cannot buy one ticket, but your prize is doubled if you win(figure that one out).

The first prize of the Thai Lottery is 2 Million Baht and there are also prizes for getting the last three numbers and two numbers correct. Plus other combinations which are all published after each lottery on Results at Thai Lottery Ticket.

There also illegal lotteries run by unofficial bookmakers that use two and three number combinations. The official Thai lottery results are used to provide the winning numbers in such cases.

Related posts:

  1. Thai Underground Lottery
  2. Thai Obsessions-White Skin Lottery
  3. Thai New Year 2011
  4. Thai Gold Baht
  5. Thai Baht
This entry was posted in Lottery, Superstition, Thai Culture. Bookmark the permalink.
  • http://thaiconnoisseur.blogspot.com Peter_M

    You are right about that ‘shaking the container to eject a stick’ thing they have going on in some temples. It is not easy to get that one stick out. My Thai friend, the innocent looking, but cunningly manipulative Miss Tuk, makes it look effortless (years of practice) and always gets a kick out of urging me to do it and then has a good laugh at my ineptness. In fact, thinking about it, she convinces me to do a lot of things which ultimately make me look very stupid, but that is another story and probably worthy of a blog post in its own right!

    • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

      Peter my only consolation with the sticks is that my niece(7 yrs) can’t do it either. Like me she cheats when Duen is not looking. Like the idea for a post since I know exactly what you mean.

  • Kris

    Hello Mike. I understand there is a horse track in Bangkok. The Royal Bangkok Sports Club where races are held every other Sunday. I think also that for every other Sunday apart from the original “every other Sunday” there is the Royal Turf Club of Thailand. I do stand to be corrected and better odds I would have thought, less to choose from and every week!

    • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

      Hi Kris is that horse races? never realised they had them in Thailand. I would agree better odds than the lottery :-)

      • Kris

        Yes Mike, horse racing. It is once a fortnight as I have just found out. Type in “horse racing in Bangkok” and check it out. K

        • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

          Kris yes I did a bit of searching after your comment. The Royal Bangkok Sports Club brings up some “interesting” reading.

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  • http://www.strayandsnap.blogspot.com Snap

    Mike…isn’t there something just a little (ok, very) wrong with monks predicting lottery winning numbers? Lucky that gecko had all of its toes though!

    • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

      Snap, I did think that when I first came here. Thai Buddhist monks are very different from the average holy man back home. Some are very good…….some not so. To be honest I quite like the Buddhist approach to things.

      My big Tokay gecko seems to have all his digits attached although they do fight like cat and dog!

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