THAI LOTTO HISTORY

Lottery 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.

CURRENT RESPONSIBILITY

At present, the Lottery Office issues 14 million tickets for each weekly draw. 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.