On the Ground Lottery
My dad called me on the evening of the 1st of April and excitedly told me that my mom just won the illegal lottery (in other word called “underground lottery”). She got quite a lot of money. First, I was thinking; oh! that’s great! I don’t have to send them money this monthJ. Later, I was wondering where did my mom get lucky those numbers from so I asked my dad, then he began to tell me about the situation of the underground lottery in my hometown. The day before the lottery day which is on the 1st and the 16th of every month, people will go crazy about finding lucky numbers and their hope is the trees!! They will go to the trees that are big enough and look magical enough so that the spirits can stay and then they offer the spirits some local chew gum (betel nut with some kinds of Thai herb) which the spirits like the most, I think, begin to prey and make a wish. After that, they will use powder (any powder) scatter on the trees (the tree skins). The most important process comes, they will scratch on the tree skins (the area that they just scattered powder on) and hope that some numbers will come up, my mom and my dad were the ones in the spirits lottery worship or whatever they called.
This happens every time on the day before the lottery day. It drives me to think about the Government policy that they are going to push back the policy of “on the ground lottery”. Many people argue that it is not a good idea because it’s going to lead people to be in dept. Some people think that the government is going to use this policy as a tool to get money from the “on the ground lottery”. On the other hand, the lottery has always been with Thai people’s life since the Ayutthaya age. In my opinion, it is a good idea to push the underground lottery to be “on the ground”; since buying lottery makes people happy, the government should make their people happy by making it legal. I am not supporting this policy because my parents are the fan of lottery but I think the government can get the profit from “on the ground lottery project” to develop the country.
Jenjira Pukan 540132004
First, I would like to congratulation with your mom that she won the lottery. I was the one who play lottery too but I buy on ground lottery. I do agree with you that Thai government should make lottery underground to on ground and make it legal. We have to accept that Thai people addict to play lottery. I can see sample from my family. Every generation in my family play lottery. On ground or underground, we play. Lottery is like a hope. Even though there is a little chance to win, people still buy it. Other country can make it legal, why Thailand cannot make it right?
ReplyDeleteMy aunt won the latest underground lottery too!! My dad told me that she got the number from the news on TV about an old woman (a spiritual woman, I guess) threw the card numbers to the hole on the ground and the insects did something with those cards. My aunt got half the prize because the host of lottery gamble told the buyers that number was the cool number. That's ridiculous. Who knows what numbers would won the lottery, right? Thai people especially in rural areas buy a lot of underground lottery because it is easier to win the prize. If the government does not want Thai people to buy the underground lottery, they have to push the policy to make it legal otherwise Thai people money will only support the host of lottery gambles' statements.
ReplyDeleteI rarely buy lottery tickets because I think I have no luck. I only won it once. It happened when a lottery tickets seller who sit next to my office ask me to buy it. So I bought one. I ask him to pick one for me. He gave me a lottery ticket number‘XXX003.’ When I saw the number ‘003’, I just thought to myself that it is impossible to win. Later, I found that ‘003’ is one of the winning numbers! I just can’t believe my eyes! LOL Anyway, I agree with all of you about pushing underground lottery to be on the ground, because it’s one of the ways to gain more money to use for developing our country. Besides, asking for lucky numbers from spiritual, animals, and trees in order to win a lottery seems to be one of Thai cultures already. We can see news about it on TV almost every day. It doesn’t sound strange among Thais anymore.
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