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Thai Lottery HistoryLottery first started in Thailand in the reign of King Rama V. It was first drawn in an international
exposition arranged in the King's birthday celebration.
Again in 1917, a lottery drawing was arranged to finance Thailand's
entry into World War I on the Allied side. Next, lottery was used to finance the Thai Red Cross charity works expenses in
1932. Lottery was first drawn to really generate revenue for the government in 1934 to finance the short fall in government
income due to the abolishment of draftee tax, levied on Thai males who wished to forego compulsory military service. The drawing
was implemented by the Revenue Department. In the same year, lottery operation was also introduced to the provinces to finance
the provincial municipality operations.
In 1939, the control of government lottery operation was transferred to the
Ministry of Finance with the appointment of the first lottery board by the Ministry of Finance on April 5, 1939, which is
now held as the founding date of the Government Lottery Office.
In the same draw, it also issues two million tickets for sports promotion and seven million for other charity organization.
To
produce the lottery tickets, the Government Lottery Office operates a modern, large-scale printing press, which also handles
printing jobs for other government agencies as well.
Each year, the Lottery Office turns in over 4,000 million bath
to the government treasury. It also provides 440 scholarships of 20,000 baht each for undergraduates and earmark eight million
baht a year for various charities. The office also contributes close to 20 million baht a year for the welfare fund of civil
service and military personal, Welfare Council of Thailand, and the War Veteran Association.
Future projects of the
Government Lottery Office includes a plan to computerize lottery buyers service that visualizes purchasing of lottery and
prize payment by commercial banks' country-wide network of automated teller machines. The Office also commits itself to increase
its support for public service projects.
At present, the Lottery Office issues 14 million tickets for each bi-monthly draw.
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