NAKHON RATCHASIMA: A lottery winner in Phimai has bought a gold necklace for a friendly two-tailed gecko that he found by chance and brought home less than two weeks ago in the belief that it would bring him luck.
Jane Chantakui, a 42-year-old construction contractor, was working at a customer's house on May 20 when he spotted a two-tailed gecko on a concrete mixing tub. He was startled by its unusual appendages, but saw the incident as a good omen. Mr Jane took the animal to the homeowner, who allowed him to bring it home and raise it as a pet.
"At that time I believed there was something auspicious about meeting this gecko and felt that it might bring good luck and fortune to my family. So I decided to take it home and raise it for good luck," Mr Jane said.
On Saturday – when the lottery results were announced on the first day of the month – Mr Jane won 28,000 baht from the government lottery's final two-digit prize. The announced number was 42. He bought 14 lottery tickets, with the prize for two digits at 2,000 baht per ticket.
Last year, a study by a statistics expert at Thammasat University showed that the likelihood of winning 2,000 baht from the final two-digit prize is only 1 in 100, meaning one has to buy a lottery ticket 100 times consecutively – which amounts to around four years and two months – just to win the two-digit prize.
Crediting the two-tailed gecko for his lottery win, Mr Jane went to a gold shop and purchased a small necklace weighing 25-satang weight of gold, worth about 5,100 baht, as a gift for his "lucky pet".
"I bought 42 because it's my age. Winning the lottery made me really think that the gecko brought me luck. I will look after it as best as I can and hope it gives me luck again in the next lottery announcement (on 16 June)," the contractor said.
