Thailand began issuing lottery tickets in the 19th century. It is said that it was introduced by the British. It is one of the earliest countries in Asia to issue lottery tickets, and it has a history of more than 2 years. At that time, the royal family held an exhibition for foreign businessmen. In order to raise funds, King Rama V authorized the Royal Security Department to hold the first lottery on his birthday. 4 tickets were printed in the first issue, each priced at 4930 baht, but only XNUMX tickets were sold in the end. This is the origin of the Thai lottery (huay).
Since then, the government has only printed lottery tickets when necessary. For example, during World War I in 1917, the British government and the Thai government jointly issued lottery tickets to raise war funds; in 1923, King Rama VI issued lottery tickets to raise funds to buy guns, but corruption was discovered and the lottery was suspended for 10 years.
In 1933, the government re-issued the lottery, but it was not until 1939 that the Government Lottery Bureau was established to specialize in lotteries. On September 1974, 9, the Government Lottery Office Act was promulgated and took effect on October 11 of that year. Now, lottery (huay) is one of the two legal gambling activities in Thailand, the other being horse racing.
