A pregnant Karen woman and her quarantined migrant laborer husband have found themselves suddenly wealthy after big Thai lottery wins this week, the head of an aid agency said today.
The Burmese couple, who live in northern metro Bangkok, won a total of THB12 million (MM600 million or US$370,000) from tickets bought while giving alms to some monks, Ye Min Oo of the Aid Alliance Committee told Coconuts on Friday. And they plan to use it to support insurgent forces seeking to free the country from military rule.
“I went to the market one day and noticed a monk offering alms on the way back, so I gave him some food,” the woman, who did not want to be identified, told Ye Min Oo. “As lottery tickets were being sold near the almshouse, I bought five tickets for both of us.”
The winning number? 114475. Ye Minn Oo, whose group sometimes helps Burmese who win the Thai lottery to repatriate their wealth, said they planned to use their newfound riches to back the Spring Revolution.
He said the Karen couple lives in Pathum Thani province in the Thai capital’s northern outskirts. The husband works at a nearby factory and is currently under quarantine due to a coronavirus outbreak there.
She has been working in Thailand for 15 years and her greatest wish, he said, was to earn enough money to return home. She met and married her husband, also from Karen State, three years ago.
