Thailand Lottery: What Those Street Sellers Actually Make (And Cost You)

You see them everywhere in Thailand. Outside every 7-Eleven, walking through restaurants, sitting on bridges with ticket books hanging around their necks. Lottery sellers are as much a part of Thai street life as tuk-tuks and street food.

I always wondered: what's the actual deal here? After chatting with a few sellers and watching tourists get confused, here's what I figured out.

Official Lottery Tickets: The Real Costs

Official Thai lottery tickets cost ฿80 ($2.30) each. That's the government price. But here's the thing — you'll rarely pay that on the street.

Most sellers charge ฿100-120 ($2.90-3.40) per ticket. The markup is their profit margin. Fair enough, they've got to eat.

Tourists often get quoted ฿150-200 ($4.30-5.70) because sellers know foreigners don't know the real price. Not exactly a scam, more like tourist pricing on everything else here.

What Sellers Actually Make

I talked to a lottery seller outside Central World who's been doing this for eight years. She buys tickets in bulk for ฿76 each from distributors, sells them for ฿100-120. That's ฿24-44 profit per ticket.

On a good day, she sells 50-80 tickets. Bad days, maybe 10-15. Do the math: ฿1,200-3,500 ($34-100) per day when things go well. Not amazing money, but it's consistent work that doesn't require much startup capital.

The real money comes right before draws. Tickets with "lucky" numbers — anything with 8s, 9s, or numbers that look like recent winning combinations — can sell for ฿200-500 ($5.70-14.30) each.

Why Tourists Shouldn't Bother

Honestly? Skip it. Here's why:

The odds are terrible — about 1 in 6 million for the top prize. You're more likely to get struck by lightning in Bangkok during dry season.

More importantly, you need a Thai bank account to claim prizes over ฿20,000. Win big as a tourist? You're dealing with serious bureaucracy or finding a Thai friend to help claim it.

Small prizes (under ฿20,000) can be claimed at any authorized retailer, but you've got 90 days from the draw date. Most tourists are long gone by then.

The Underground Scene

This is where things get sketchy. Illegal underground lotteries run alongside the official one, with different numbers, different odds, and definitely different risks.

Underground tickets cost ฿10-50 ($0.30-1.40) each but the "winners" often don't get paid. Plus, getting caught playing illegal lotteries can mean fines or worse for foreigners.

Some sellers offer both legal and illegal tickets. Legal ones come with official government stamps and serial numbers. Illegal ones look photocopied or handwritten.

What I'd Actually Do

If you're curious about Thai culture, buy one official ticket from a street seller for the experience. Pay the tourist price (฿150-200) and don't stress about it — think of the extra ฿70-120 as a cultural tax.

Check the ticket has:

• Official government stamps
• Clear serial numbers
• Proper printing quality
• The seller can show you their license

Then lose the ticket in your hotel room like everyone else does.

The Real Numbers Game

Here's what actually happens: Thais spend an estimated ฿200-500 billion ($5.7-14.3 billion) annually on legal and illegal lotteries combined. That's massive money flowing through what looks like a simple street trade.

For context, that's more than Thailand's entire tourism revenue in some years.

The government takes about 60% of legal lottery revenue, with 40% going to prizes and seller commissions. Underground lotteries keep much higher percentages, which explains why they're everywhere despite being illegal.

Bottom line: lottery selling isn't just about luck — it's a whole economy built on hope and small margins.

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