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Published on: 05/06/2026 - 11:20

Every year, tens of thousands of young Thais must enter the draw organized by the army to recruit its conscripts. Much more than an administrative procedure, this ritual is a true national spectacle, broadcast on television and massively relayed on social networks. A lottery which is also criticized by part of the population, denouncing an obsolete and unfair way of choosing soldiers, while some politicians and activists dare to denounce the corruption of this system and the abuses to which conscripts are victims.

It feels like a game show. Screams, tears, fainting, scenes of joy or distress: the Thai army lottery transformed an intimate and distressing moment for every 21-year-old Thai into collective entertainment with viral images.

Every year, around 90,000 men join the army, half of them by lottery. A figure which is not about to drop, while the Thai and Cambodian soldiers fought each other in July 2025, then in December 2025. Since then, a ceasefire has been signed, but tensions at the border remain high and the Thai army more mobilized than ever.

Suspicious deaths

We followed a group of young Thais before and after this fateful lottery. Conscription is seen by many young people as an obsolete and anxiety-provoking obligation, causing them to lose two precious years of work or study. Especially since the poorest know well that this conscription is plagued by bribes and that hundreds of young people from wealthy families pay to escape military service.

In this country where the army is all-powerful, it is also the working conditions of conscripts that are singled out. Submission, violence, beatings and hazing… In recent years, several suspicious deaths of conscripts have raised questions. Is the country ready for reform? The People's Party, the leading opposition party, is demanding a change of system.

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