Thais take their religious beliefs quite seriously. So it stands to reason one of the more popular uses for the local wat is as a source for obtaining lucky numbers. Not that every local heads to his favorite temple to obtain what, obviously, will be that day’s winning lottery numbers. Those are as easily divined from innumerable sources: the number of times a gecko chirps in the morning, the address of a house that a kamikaze bird played death by window at, the numbers a frog croaked out after you gave it a cigarette to puff on, the hospital room number where a respected Buddhist monk known for foretelling lucky numbers died . . . and if you run across either a two-headed cow or five-legged dog, uh, hello?

There are virtually no lengths Thais will not go to in order to get that winning combination of numbers. Wats and monks are a good source, dreams are always a good bet for winning the pot of baht you’re dreaming of, and everyone knows the spirits in trees love nothing more than making winning number magically appear on their bark. The odd markings on a car left by a Naga who’d slithered over it wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t a sure sign of your path to riches. And birthdays, house numbers, car registrations, and cell phone numbers are all filled with numbers that will make you a winner too.

My friend Noom scoffs at these ridiculous attempts at foretelling what the winning numbers will be. But then one day when I tripped climbing up a flight of steps at the National Stadium BTS station, he carefully counted which number of stair I’d tripped on, and then the total number of steps to the station. And then we spent an hour walking around town so he could find a lottery ticket with those number on it. Don’t laugh. He won 10,000 baht. ‘Cuz even clumsy farang can be lucky if you play them right.

Finding a Thai who doesn’t believe in ghosts is easier than finding one who hasn’t played the lottery. At 40 baht per ticket, it’s an affordable means of gambling. Until you consider what the average daily wage earned by most Thais is. And then, because this is Thailand, that 40 baht ticket will actually cost you 100 baht. They come in sets, with a top and the bottom part, each bearing the same six digit number. And you can only buy them by the pair. So 40 baht becomes 80 baht,. Which has to be lucky for someone. Then there’s the 20 baht fee added by the seller. Unless he or she is lucky enough to have drawn a farang as a customer, then their odds of winning is increased by an additional 20 baht tacked on to the ticket cost.

On the plus side, if – or if you are Thai, when – you win, your prize money is doubled too. Unless you are a bar boy whose farang’s numbers just came in in the money. Then the sky is the limit. If your farang won 20,000 baht or less, you’ll take his ticket (and hopefully not him) to a local agent to cash it in. If he won more than 20,000 baht, you’ll have to get taxi money out of him to make the trek to the Government Lottery Office where you’ll receive a check for the winning amount. In either case, farang will always believe you when you tell them that only Thais can win the lottery. They are, after all, hansum men.

The official lottery in Thailand is drawn twice a month, on the first and sixteenth, give or take a day. First prize is 2 million baht. Or maybe that’s 3 million. Which, of course, is doubled, so it’s really 4 million. Or 6 million. There’s also a whole series of other cash prizes too, running from 1,000 to 100,000 baht, based on how many of your numbers come in, in which order, and/or how closely to the winning numbers your actual numbers were. But there’s also a tax imposed on winnings, from 50 satang per hundred baht won to 2 baht per hundred, depending on where you collect your winnings. All of which helps confuse farang, who probably were a but suspicious about purchasing lottery tickets from some old lady sitting on the curb in front of McDonalds in the first place.

No problemo. Thais know better. And every Thai knows, whatever magical formula he used to pick his numbers, the lottery is his best chance at becoming rich. Well, finding a farang to ‘sponsor’ you is the best way of ensuring those riches, but the lottery is always a close second.

The first official lottery by the Thai government was held in 1874 as part of the celebration honoring Rama V’s birthday. The second (and third) lotteries in Thailand were thanks to the Brits. During WWI, England wanted to borrow money from the Thai government but was concerned that a direct loan might affect the monetary stability of the Kingdom. So they sold lottery tickets instead. Who won those lotteries is lost to history, but as with all forms of gambling, the real winner was the house. Which in this case was the House of Windsor. In 1932, the Thai Red Cross go into the lottery game, and by 1939 Thailand’s official government lottery finally was run by the official Thai government, which, some 35 years later, morphed into the twice-a-month lottery that all Thais are familiar with today.
The most recent lottery was held this weekend. I’ve yet to hear back from Noom (who is probably busy counting his winnings) but since there was a tie-in with past lucky numbers being lucky for a change, I assume he played the lottery big time. On Saturday, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra tripped while getting out of her car in Chiang Mai. And if a falling farang is worth 10,000 baht, an equally embarrassed PM has gotta be worth a million or two. Or if you are fond of wearing a red shirt, that’s gotta be worth the fate of the nation.

This morning Thailand’s Government Lottery Office is being grilled over whether or not this weekend’s lottery numbers were selected randomly, despite the process they use to pick those numbers being more convoluted than the various ways of winning. A group of anti-government protesters even marched on the Lottery Bureau demanding an investigation. Their problem is that the last two digits prize, and Sunday’s lottery result were, 79. Which matched the last two digits of one of the two vans Yingluck rode in while in Chiang Mai.

Even worse, depending on your political affiliations, in the underground lottery (which uses the official lottery’s winning numbers, but offers better odds) the last three digits prize winning number was 404. Which matched the license plate number of the lucky van she lost her balance in front of.

Supporters of Yingluck’ troubled government, which is facing yet another election at the beginning of next month, claim the coincidence of the winning lottery number and the accident-prone PM’s Northern Thailand stumbling visit is a sign that she is the rightful leader of the country. The sore losers backing other political hopefuls, and undoubtedly also losers in the most recent lottery, are crying foul. So it’s politics, and superstitions, as usual in Thailand.

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