There are two types of Thai lottery tickets. The first is the Thai Government Lottery (TGL) ticket. The second is the Thai Charity Lottery (TCL) ticket. These titles are printed at the upper left of each ticket. Aside from the names, the two differ only in their first prize payouts and the amount of tax to be paid on winnings. TGL tickets have a first prize of three million baht, a bonus prize of 30 million*, and are taxed at 0.5%. TCL tickets have a first prize of three million baht, a bonus prize of 22 million*, and are taxed at 1%.
- Bonus prize eliminated by military government after 1 Aug 2015.
Thai lottery tickets, whether TGL or TCL, are pre-printed, include a number of anti-counterfeiting features,[21] and can only be purchased in “ticket-pairs”. Each individual ticket is priced at 40 baht, and the ticket-pair at 80 baht. Single tickets are not sold, only ticket-pairs.
Each ticket in a ticket-pair is identical except for:
- The pictograms (centre of each ticket)
- Bar codes (lower right)
- Unit (Thai: ชุด, RTGS: chut) numbers (2-digit numbers, lower centre. In the examples shown, “09” and “10”, and “81”, “82”). A “unit” consists of one million 40 baht tickets. Published prize amounts are honoured if the unit sells out. If it does not, prizes are reduced proportionately.[22]
On the verso of each ticket is the schedule of prizes, ancillary information, and conditions.
Draw methodology (simplified)
Ten “guests” unaffiliated with the lottery attend each drawing to act as official witnesses. Drawings are held at GLO headquarters on the first and sixteenth of every month. Should either of these dates fall on a holiday, the draw is postponed to the next day. All drawings are televised from 15:00 to 16:00 on the day of the draw. The following procedure is followed:[23]
- One of the guests is named “Draw Chairman”.
- Guests inspect the equipment, numbers of balls, and search for anomalies.
- Draw Chairman randomly selects balls (numbers) to initialise each draw machine.
- Draw Chairman randomly selects a coloured balls to determine the order of lesser prize draws. Four coloured balls signify different prizes: yellow for 2nd prize, pink for 3rd prize, green for 4th prize, and blue for 5th prize.
- Six-digit numbers are drawn for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th prizes. Total draws: 165.
- Three-digit numbers are drawn for the 3-digit prize. Total draws: four.
- A two-digit number is drawn for the 2-digit prize. Total draws: one.
- A six-digit number is drawn for first prize. Total draws: one. Also announced are the ±1 special prize numbers.
- Draw a two-digit number for the Thai Government Lottery bonus prize of 30 million baht*.
- Draw a two-digit number for the Thai Charity Lottery bonus prize of 22 million baht*.
- Following the last three draws, officials remove balls from machines to show that all 10 numbers were present.
- Bonus prize eliminated by military government after 1 Aug 2015.
Prizes
First prize for all six correct numbers is 2 million baht (TGL) or 3 million baht (TCL) per ticket. As tickets are sold in pairs, the published prize amount is doubled.[24] Doubling applies to all prizes except for the 22 million and 30 million baht bonus prizes. There are five second prizes of 100,000 baht, ten third prizes of 40,000, fifty prizes of 20,000 for fourth, one hundred 10,000 baht prizes for fifth and a 50,000 baht consolation prize for the six-digit winning number plus or minus one.[25]
Lottery of Thailand 