Rangsima Saengchai was happy with the Thai government's bloody crackdown on drug traffickers, which sent the death toll in extra-judicial killings soaring to close to 3,000 alleged traffickers in three months. But the 42-year-old housewife says her life has 'lost a lot of fun' since the authorities turned their sights on one of her favourite pastimes, the underground lottery. Not that anybody has been shot dead in this campaign, part of a bigger plan by the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to 'clean up' Thailand.
The government has roped in the police - themselves an important player in the illegal lottery - forcing underground bookies to go to ground. But, as Mrs Rangsima says, the move is deeply unpopular.
Huai tai din, as the illegal lottery is called, is big. Thailand used to come to a virtual halt at 3.30pm on the first and 16th of every month, when the official lottery winning numbers were read out on the radio. But the majority of punters use the underground lottery to gamble on the last two or three digits of the winning number. According to economist Sungsidh Piriyarangsan, virtually half of the adult Thai population (23.7 million out of 62 million) plays the game, creating as many as 4 million jobs and generating an annual income of 540 billion baht (HK$100.8 billion).
People watch for lucky numbers. A top monk's car crashes and people anxiously watch their TVs to note down the number on the licence. A baby says its first words and the mother tries to make out whether it is a number. Soothsayers speak and pens scribble.
'Cash in on the fever' is how the government sees it. Private firms are setting up lottery machines to make money for the government, and the first gamble is set for August 1. This is part of the clean-up of the underground economy, which takes in everything from legalising taxi motorcycles, clamping down on pirated CDs and other counterfeit goods, and getting rid of corrupt police officers.
According to Nakarin Mektrairat, a political scientist at Thammasat University, the government is making the right move in bringing the underground lottery into the formal sector and bringing in revenue at the same time. But some are sceptical. 'The government wants to make 15 billion baht a year through running this lottery,' says Professor Sungsidh, who has carried out an in-depth survey into huai tai din and is co-author of a book on the underground economy entitled, Guns, Girls, Gambling, Ganja. Look at the difference in benefits. The 15 billion baht the government hopes to earn is a lot less than the 540 billion baht that the illegal lottery currently pumps into the economy, he says.