A Thai woman says she gave up buying lottery tickets and saved the money instead, ending up with more than she expected after two years, according to a Facebook post that has circulated widely.
The post, shared to a Facebook group under the name Duenpen Tabla on August 17, describes the woman as a vendor who used to buy lottery tickets regularly. She said that after two years of never winning, she decided to try something different.
“I used to like playing the lottery,” she wrote. “Then one day I sat down and thought about it. Two years of buying, and I had never won.”
Rather than buying a ticket for each draw, she began setting the same amount of money aside in a piggy bank. Her aim was to see how much she would have spent over a year, and to encourage others who wanted to quit playing the lottery to try the same thing.
When she eventually opened the piggy bank, she said a rough visual count suggested the total came to roughly ten thousand baht, more than she had expected.
The government lottery draws twice a month, so 24 times a year. At the official 80 baht a ticket, someone buying five tickets a draw spends 9,600 baht a year. Over two years, that is 19,200 baht saved instead of buying at the vendor’s stall.
The official Thai lottery is run by the Government Lottery Office, under the Finance Ministry. Draws fall on the 1st and the 16th of each month, occasionally shifted for a public holiday.
Vendors routinely ask 100 or 120 baht for numbers people consider lucky. This is considered overcharging, and the government has been trying to stamp it out for years.
The first prize is 6 million baht. The tickets numbered directly above and below the winning number take 100,000 baht each. A 0.5% stamp duty comes off government lottery winnings.
Digital tickets can be bought through the Pao Tang app, which pays out automatically. That route needs a Thai ID card, so it is closed to most foreign residents. Paper tickets are open to anyone. A foreigner who wins claims the prize with the ticket and a passport.
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