Thailand Lottery

The Thai lottery is a national institution. Twice a month, on the 1st and 16th, the whole country stops to watch a televised draw that hands out a 6 million baht top prize, and street vendors with wooden ticket racks do steady business in every town. The state runs it through the Government Lottery Office (GLO), and in recent years it has grown from a single paper ticket into a family of products: a digital lottery on your phone, a three-digit game, and more on the way. This page is the overview: what each game is, what it costs, what it pays and how to collect. Each game also has its own in-depth page, linked below.

The Thai Government Lottery at a glance

The main game is the six-digit government lottery. Each set contains 1 million tickets at 80 baht each, and each set carries 14,168 prizes totaling 64 million baht if every ticket sells⁴. You buy a ticket with a pre-printed six-digit number, and on draw day you match it against the winning numbers announced on television and online.

The full picture of how the paper ticket works, from security features to prize tiers, is on the page about the Government Lottery Office's L6 paper and digital lottery. In short: one ticket, one six-digit number, 14,168 ways to win per set, and a first prize of 6 million baht⁴.

Tickets are printed with several anti-counterfeiting features worth knowing about⁷:

• Silk lines and glowing lines over the numbers visible under purple light
• Anti-copy orange ink
• Water-resistant number ink
• A 2D barcode you can check yourself on the GLO website for the current draw

If a vendor hands you a ticket that fails those checks, walk away.

Draws, ticket price and the 12 percent discount

Draws are held twice a month, on the 1st and 16th, with the results broadcast from 14.30 until about 16.00¹. A few dates shift: the New Year draw is held on December 30, Teachers' Day on January 17, Labour Day on May 2, and a draw that lands on an important religious day is moved¹.

The official price of a paper ticket is 80 baht, a single-ticket format since the draw of September 1, 2017; before that, tickets came in pairs at 40 baht each, and earlier still cost 20 baht⁸. In practice, street vendors often charge more. Tickets with "pretty" numbers, or sold in sets, commonly go for 110 baht and up⁹. The overpricing is a long-running sore point, partly because it cuts into the income of disabled and state-assisted sellers who rely on ticket commissions⁹.

The 12 percent discount works differently than most people assume. It is not a discount for you at the stall; it is the discount rate the GLO gives to retail individuals, disabled persons and advance purchase-booking buyers when they buy stock¹⁰. If you buy through the advance booking system, you are buying at that discounted wholesale level. Allocation runs through two systems: a distributor agent system of 31 million tickets per draw, and an advance purchase-booking system of up to 69 million tickets¹⁰.

Prizes and odds: what each tier pays

Here is the full prize ladder per set, assuming all tickets are sold⁴:

Two rules sit behind those numbers. First, if a set does not sell out, every prize is reduced proportionally⁴. Second, prize money goes to the person who holds the winning ticket and presents it, and every claimant signs the back of the ticket and has their ID card details recorded during the claim⁴.

Government or charity lottery: which ticket you hold

Since the draw of May 2, 2019, the GLO prints two types of ticket: the government lottery and the charity lottery¹². They look similar and both are checked against the government lottery results of the same draw¹³, so a charity ticket wins or loses on the same numbers.

The differences that matter to you are on the claim side, covered in full later on this page: the claim deadline is 2 years for a government lottery ticket but 10 years for a charity lottery ticket, and the deductions differ, with charity prizes paying 1 percent withholding tax while government prizes pay stamp duty⁴.

One warning about where you buy. The GLO has no policy and no contract with anyone selling its tickets through online platforms or automatic vending machines, so tickets from those channels are not official¹⁴. Buy directly from sales agents with a physical premises, or through the Paotang app, so your prize money is guaranteed¹⁵.

The digital lottery and the Paotang app

The digital lottery sells the same six-digit tickets at 80 baht each, with no additional fees or service charges, through the Paotang app and the government lottery sales website, on both iOS and Android². It launched on June 2, 2022, for the June 16 draw, with at least 5 million tickets on the platform and 10,513 agents signed up to distribute them¹⁶.

The app gives you two ways to search: by the number you want, or by the retail agent shops selling tickets¹⁶. Once you select a ticket you must pay within a set period; after payment, ownership passes to you and the ticket cannot be resold¹⁶. Your Paotang lottery wallet keeps a receipt with your name and address, plus your full purchase history from the first draw onward, which solves the lost-ticket problem that plagues paper players¹⁷.

If you win, the app notifies you. You can have the money transferred to a linked Krungthai bank account, or claim in person at the GLO; the first prize must be claimed in person¹⁸. The transfer fee is 1 percent, the same as for paper tickets¹⁷. The full story, including how the platform works and what changed as it scaled up, is on the page about Thailand's digital lottery and the Paotang app.

The N3 three-digit lottery

The N3, approved by the cabinet in July 2023 alongside the L6, is a three-digit game sold digitally only, through the Paotang app¹⁹. Unlike the main lottery, where you take whatever number is printed on the ticket, N3 lets you choose your numbers, which is the whole point: it was created to give people a legal way to pick their own numbers and to attack the overpricing problem, since digital sales cannot be marked up¹⁹.

It has four prize categories: exact three, permuted three, exact two, and a special prize. The number of prizes varies with sales, and payout ratios are announced before each draw¹⁹. Draws follow the same calendar as the main lottery, on the 1st and 16th of each month¹⁹. Details of the prize structure and how to play are on the page about the N3 three-digit lottery.

The underground lottery (huay tai din)

Alongside the official games runs the huay tai din, the underground lottery, which is illegal²⁰. It takes bets on the last two or three digits of the official government lottery draw, and also on the closing digits of stock market indices: the SET index, the Nikkei, the Dow Jones and others²¹. Bets are placed before the 1st and 16th of each month, timed to the government and savings bank lottery draws, and there are illegal daily wagers on the SET closing figure²¹.

Payouts are where it draws people in. A two-digit bet pays 60 to 70 baht per 1 baht staked, and a three-digit bet pays around 400 to 500 baht per baht, with rates varying by region and having been cut over the years²⁰. There is also a semi-open variant, huay bon din, sold as printed tickets at 20, 50 or 100 baht, paying 55 baht per baht on two digits and 400 on three²⁰. The practical risk is simple: it is against the law and your money has no protection if a bookie does not pay. The page on the underground lottery covers how it works in detail.

Retirement lotto and other newer products

The cabinet approved a retirement lottery bill in late 2024 with an unusual twist: every baht you spend on it goes into your savings, including money spent on losing tickets²². Tickets would cost 50 baht each, with winners announced every Friday at 5pm²².

It is aimed at National Savings Fund members and self-employed people covered by Section 40 of the Social Security Fund, who could buy up to 3,000 baht worth of tickets each month²². The prizes would be five one-million-baht prizes each week, plus a 1,000 baht payout for 10,000 other ticket holders²². Winners claim prizes immediately, but the money spent on tickets can only be claimed back at age 60, and until then the fund manages it²².

Another proposed product, the 12 Zodiac lottery, would have you fill four positions with images chosen from 12 zodiac signs, at 50 baht per entry, drawn on the 1st and 16th after the main draw, with 60 percent of sales going to prizes²³. The odds were set at 1 in 20,736 for a straight win and 42 in 20,736 for a permuted win²³. The GLO has denied it was ever released for sale, so as of now you cannot buy it²³.

Who can buy: the age rule and sales restrictions

The age rule is straightforward: buyers must not be under 20 years of age, and the same minimum applies to the Paotang app⁵. Sales inside schools are prohibited⁵.

For foreign visitors and residents, the answer is good news: anyone can legally buy Thai lottery tickets as long as they buy from licensed vendors within Thailand⁶. Foreigners claim winnings by presenting a passport or government-issued ID along with the winning ticket⁶. One thing to note if you win big and take the money out of the country: you may need to declare the funds at customs, depending on the amount⁶.

How to claim a prize, taxes and deadlines

Small prizes, up to 20,000 baht, are paid in cash on the spot at claim points²⁰. Prizes over 20,000 baht are paid by check or bank transfer, with inter-bank transfers capped at 2 million baht per transaction⁸. Major prizes are claimed at the GLO office in Bangkok, at 359 Nonthaburi Road, Tha Sai, Mueang Nonthaburi 11000, open Monday to Friday, 08.30 to 15.00 with no midday break²⁰.

To claim at the GLO office you must book a queue online in advance, at www.glo.or.th, through the GLO Lottery app or by QR code: one queue per person per day, for up to 200 tickets, bookable at least one day ahead but no later than the next draw date²¹. The morning slot, 07.30 to 12.00, takes 60,000 tickets a day and the afternoon slot, 12.01 to 14.00, takes 25,000²⁷. Arrive at your booked time or you lose the online slot, though you can still be served as a walk-in after those who booked²⁷. Service is given only to the person whose name matches the booking and the claim evidence, or to someone with power of attorney²⁷.

At the counter, staff record your ID card details, have you sign the back of every winning ticket, verify a first-prize ticket within about 5 minutes, and have you confirm the payout details on screen with an electronic signature before payment by check or bank transfer²⁵. Prize money can also be paid through the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, Krung Thai Bank and the Government Savings Bank²¹.

On taxes and deadlines: government lottery prizes carry stamp duty of 1 baht per 200 baht of prize money, or fraction of 200, while charity lottery prizes have 1 percent income tax withheld at source⁴. Government lottery prizes must be claimed within 2 years of the draw date, charity lottery prizes within 10 years; after that, the money goes to state revenue⁴. If you lose a winning ticket, remember that prize money goes to whoever presents it, so report a lost ticket to the GLO Law Office on 0 2528 9013 before the draw of that period to place a hold on it²⁴. For anything else, the call center is 0 2528 9999¹⁰.