Thread: Memory Lane (In my own language)

According to page 26/650 concerning ‘A Documentary titled: The lottery’

In 1916, King Rama VI formally banned the ‘huay’ and during the time of World War I, he suggested a government lottery to raise money.

People see the government lottery as another rich channel because the rewards received are of high value. These awards cause people to strive for various lucky numbers whether in the world of superstition or else and that always cause a scandal.

During the reign of King Rama VI, there was a very interesting case concerning the corruption of lottery that was managed by the government officials who directly oversaw the issuance of lottery and prizes.

At that time, lottery in the reign of King Rama VI was the issue as "A Million Baht Scout Lottery". 1 million copies were printed and 1 baht for each was the cost.

The purpose of this type of lottery was to use for raising funds to provide weapons for the Wild Tiger Corps which he had established. This fundraising lottery was originally conceived and managed by top officers who worked for the King’s Wild Tiger Corps.

However, after the fundraising ended, the process smelled fishy and finally was caught by people and newspapers. They were curious if the names of the lottery buyers who won the first three prizes were reliable. There were three of them, Nai Chuen, Nai Seng and the third whose name was not mentioned in the history. While the prizes were paid but did those three persons exist?

The case was unfolded in a big way when the newspaper titled "Kroh Lek (iron shield)" dug the truth and suspiciously found that all the three awarded numbers started with the same set of three figures ‘183’.

The information spread to other newspapers and they joined heads to dig more and found that the scam was conducted by a group led by a high ranking noble who worked closely to King Rama VI. His name was Praya Nonthisane (for short).

The scandal was big enough that the Director-General of the Police Department at that time announced an investigation. All of the officials and committee, mostly were farung, who dealt with the procession of the lottery issuance were interrogated.

The results of the investigation revealed that the names of the three winners did not exist. The fact was according to the newspapers’ suspicion.

The final truth came out at the Supreme Court. All the major suspects were arrested. The first defendant, Praya Nonthisane, was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

The case of this big scandal was said to be the result of the press that helped spreading the information and doubts that finally pushed the police to investigate this fraud which led to a successful ending.


Praya Nonthisane originally was a commoner. His father was a German whose last name was Falck. Once his family was granted surname, it was ‘Sean-saewee’ (derived from the German meaning (falck = falcon), to Thai meaning using Sanskrit alphabets). So, the original name of him was ‘Max Sean-saewee’.

After being declared the first defendant of the scandal, he was considered a disgrace to his descendants who shared the same surname. The embarrassment was up to the point the they decided to drop the original surname and change to a new one. The new surname only just indicates that they are descendants of a German family.

The image of Praya Nonthisane has almost never been found (on the internet).

(The caricature of his was drawn by King Rama VI)