A deposit, a ticket, and a bail bond

Article 20 The underground lottery: Thailand’s other financial market described Thailand’s underground lottery — bigger than the official one, illegal, and a reliable way for people without much money to have less.

Article 70 The part the state couldn’t copy described the state trying to compete with it and failing.

This article is about the thing the state built that worked, and almost nobody outside Thailand has heard of it.

What it is

Two state banks sell an instrument that is a savings deposit and a lottery ticket at the same time.

You buy units. You hold them for a fixed term. Every month your number goes into a draw. At the end of the term you get your money back.

Not “you might get your money back”. The principal is returned. What you are gambling is not your capital but your interest — and the interest is very small, which is the part worth looking at.

One issue, read properly

The figures that follow are from the Government Savings Bank’s own disclosure sheet for its two-year special savings lottery — the paper issue, series 277, in force from 24 July 2026. Rates, prizes and penalties change with every issue. These are that issue’s, and this article states nothing about any other.

A unit costs ฿100. The minimum is one unit. Anyone aged seven or over may hold them, as may companies and other juristic persons.

The term is two years, and the interest is fifty satang a unit at maturity — 0.25 per cent a year.

Fifty satang on a hundred baht, over two years.

Take the money out inside six months and you get back ฿98 a unit — the only way to lose money on the thing. After six months you get your ฿100 back, with no interest until the two years are up.

And every month the numbers are drawn — on the first, or the second in January and May — and broadcast live online. Over the two years that is twenty-four chances. The prizes run from a first prize of ฿30 million, drawn once a month, down to a last-four-digit prize of ฿500.

Now read the table the bank publishes about itself

The sheet carries a table of the minimum expected return, broken down by how much you hold.

Below ฿1 million: 0.25 per cent a year — interest only.

At ฿1 million: 0.85 per cent a year — the interest plus a last-four-digit prize the bank guarantees every month, ฿500.

At ฿5 million, ฿10 million and ฿50 million: still 0.85 per cent.

At ฿1,000 million: 0.964 per cent, once the smaller prizes can be counted on too.

The bank also states what those returns are worth as a fixed deposit before tax: 0.294 per cent at the bottom, 1.000 per cent from ฿1 million, 1.134 per cent at a billion.

That is the whole mechanism, printed by the issuer, in one table.

Prizes are probabilistic, so the more units you hold, the more reliably you collect the small ones. Below a million baht the bank does not expect you to win anything at all, and says so by quoting your return as interest alone. From a million, a prize arrives every month and stops being luck.

So the lottery is offered to everybody and the expected return rises with the size of the holding. The person putting in a hundred baht is buying a monthly thirty seconds of hope and a quarter of one per cent. The person putting in a million is buying a two-year deposit at more than three times that rate, with a guaranteed prize doing the work.

This is not a criticism of anyone and no adjective is attached to it. It is what the disclosure document says, and the bank deserves some credit for printing it plainly.

What else the unit is

Here is the part that makes this more interesting than a savings product.

On the paper issue, after holding for one day you can borrow against the units at 95 per cent of their value from the bank.

And they can be used as security for bail — for a suspect at the investigation stage before the police and the prosecutor, and for a defendant in court. They can also secure a bank letter of guarantee.

So one instrument is simultaneously a deposit, a lottery ticket, and a bail bond.

The digital version of the same issue is not. Its own sheet — series 274, in force from 2 April 2026, with the same interest and prizes — says it cannot be used as loan collateral, as bail security or for a letter of guarantee, and it is open only to people aged fifteen and over.

Article 80 Money you can wear found that Thais hold wealth in gold because it is standard, liquid, bearer and instantly usable as collateral at a pawnshop. The paper unit is the state’s version of the same set of properties: a standard unit, a published price, a guaranteed floor, a lender who will take it at 95 per cent within a day, and a court that will accept it.

With one addition gold does not have, and it is the reason people buy it. Every month, your number is read out.

And the tax

On the sheet, individuals pay no tax on either the interest or the prize money. Juristic persons are withheld under the Revenue Department’s rules.

Set that against the alternatives. Ordinary bank interest is subject to withholding. The illegal lottery in article 20 The underground lottery: Thailand’s other financial market pays nothing to anyone and is enforced against the players as much as the bankers.

So the state took the most popular financial habit in the country, wrapped it around a capital-protected deposit, made the winnings tax-free to individuals, and let the instrument double as collateral.

Article 70 The part the state couldn’t copy asked why the state could not beat the underground lottery at its own game. The answer this product suggests is that it did not have to. It did not try to out-lottery the lottery. It attached the lottery to something the underground market cannot offer at all: a principal that comes back.

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Common misconceptions

“You can lose your money.” The principal is returned at maturity. On the 2026 issue described here the only loss is ฿2 a unit for leaving inside six months.

“It pays like a fixed deposit.” On that issue the interest is 0.25 per cent a year, and the bank’s own table shows the expected return reaching 0.85 per cent only from ฿1 million.

“The prizes are taxed like the government lottery.” On that sheet individuals pay no tax on interest or prize money; juristic persons are withheld.

“It’s just a savings account with a gimmick.” The paper issue can be borrowed against at 95 per cent after one day and used as security for bail and for a letter of guarantee. The digital version cannot.

“Children can’t hold them.” The paper issue is open to anyone aged seven and over; the digital one to those aged fifteen and over.