04 JANUARY 2012 - BANGKOK, THAILAND:  People walk past a lottery ticket shop on  Sukhumvit Soi 77 in Bangkok. About 20 million Thais, nearly ? of the country's 65 million people, play lottery type games. The lotteries were brought to Thailand two hundred years ago by Chinese immigrants. Lottery agents are usually friends who collect bets but do not ask for money before the drawing. The lottery shops are close to Wat Mahabut and many people go the temple to see the fortune tellers and pray at the shrines there for guidance on the numbers to play in the lottery games.   PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ