The lottery in Thailand is hugely popular despite the low odds of winning and the unfavourable payout ratio. The payout ratio for the Thai lottery is 60%,[3] as compared with world-wide averages of 74% for bingo, 81% for horse racing, 89% for slot machines, and 98% in blackjack (basic rules).[4] It is the most popular legal form of gambling in Thailand.
Around 19.2 of 67 million Thais played the government lottery, spending 76 billion baht (US$2.3 billion) in 2014, according to the Family Network Foundation’s Secretary Wanchai Boonpracha. Unlike in most countries, where the government licenses and monitors the lottery business, the Thai GLO itself prints and sells the tickets to wholesalers. The strict laws that forbid other gambling activities results in the GLO pocketing 28% of lottery profits for state use.
Lottery tickets were first issued in the reign (1868–1910) of King Rama V. At that time the king granted the Royal Bodyguard permission to operate a lottery on the occasion of his birthday in 1874. Lotteries were then held intermittently until 1933 when they became a standard government revenue source. Over the years the price of lottery ticket has climbed from one baht to its present official price of 80 baht, although that price has been seldom observed, a surcharge invariably being added.
As of 25 December 2014, of the 74 million lottery tickets printed for the bi-weekly lottery, 22.74 million or 30.7% of them were allotted to 10 organisations. The GLO Foundation is the biggest recipient, having a fixed quota of 9,213,500 tickets. Other fixed ticket quotas as of that date were
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