The lottery is a form of chance-based prize drawing wherein players are eligible to win money, goods or services. It is a type of legalized gambling, and is operated by governments or private organizations in most countries around the world. While it is a common form of gaming, it is not well understood by the public at large. This talk will explore the social, moral and economic history of lotteries, and will attempt to shed light on their mechanics. It will also discuss what the lottery meant to people on the ground in Luang Prabang, where the speaker was doing ethnographic research during 2013-2016.
Lottery Online
In a lottery, a ticket is purchased for the chance of winning a prize based on a random selection of numbers. The prize ranges from small cash prizes to large jackpots. The odds of winning the grand prize are extremely low, but winning one of the smaller prizes is still possible. Lotteries are popular worldwide and are regulated by national laws and international treaties. They are an important source of revenue for government budgets and for charitable projects.
New Zealand Lottery
The government operates a national lottery, which is administered by an independent Crown entity called Lotto New Zealand. Profits from the lottery are distributed by the New Zealand Lottery Grants Board to charities and community organizations through an established process. The agency’s funding allocations are separate from those of other government departments, such as Sport and Recreation New Zealand, Creative New Zealand and the Health Lottery.
Laotian immigrant wins Oregon lottery
A Laotian immigrant in Portland, Oregon has won the Powerball lottery and plans to split the $70 million prize with a friend. Forty-six-year-old Cheng Saephan and his wife, Duanpen, have decided to take half the prize, and plan to give the rest to a friend. They bought a total of seven tickets, including five of the winning numbers — 509 on Oct. 14 this year. The number appeared only on the tickets sold in the morning of the drawing, and did not appear on any other purchased tickets, RFA’s Lao Service reports.
Lottery rigging in communist Laos
Lottery officials in the communist country of Laos are rigged the system by manipulating winning numbers, sources in the capital Vientiane tell Radio Free Asia. They often change the numbers after a winning draw, or make the numbers less popular in order to avoid large pay-outs. The winning numbers in the latest drawing, for example, numbered only as 5 on tickets purchased throughout the day of the draw, after ticket sellers deemed them unlucky.
Lottery rigging isn’t new to the nation, where state-owned companies are known as “the monopolies.” But the tainted reputation of some lottery operators has raised concerns about the legitimacy of the industry. This has led to a slew of lawsuits filed against the companies.