Until recently lottery games were largely illegal in Canada. In 1967 the federal Liberal government introduced an omnibus bill that was intended to update a number of obsolete laws, including one prohibiting lotteries. The new law allowed the provinces to operate lottery systems. Today Canada has four nationwide lotteries: Lotto 6/49, Lotto Max (which replaced Lotto Super 7 in September 2009), Daily Grand and Millionaire Life. Lottery games are operated by the Atlantic Lottery Corporation (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador), Loto-Quebec (Quebec), Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (Ontario) and Western Canada Lottery and Gaming Corporation (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Yukon and Northwest Territories).
In addition to national lotteries, most countries have local or regional lotteries. These are often privately run, but may be subsidized by public funds. They offer a variety of prizes, including automobiles and appliances. Some also offer scholarships or medical grants. Some states even regulate these lotteries, and some limit the number of tickets that can be purchased.
Some private online casinos also offer instant lottery-style games, and some charge premiums over base lottery prices. These games are usually not subject to the same strict licensing and regulation as traditional casino-style games. In fact, according to GTech Corporation, which operates many of these sites, lottery-style games represent 70% of worldwide Internet gaming revenue.
A Laotian immigrant who won a lottery prize of more than $1.3 billion dollars is splitting it with a friend to pay for cancer treatments. The winner, Cheng Saephan, said at a news conference that he would take half of the money and give the rest to his wife, Duanpen, who has been undergoing cancer treatment for eight years. The couple lives in Portland, Oregon. They are members of the Iu Mien ethnic group, a group that fled Vietnam during the war and settled in the United States, mostly along the West Coast.
While the lottery is a popular form of gambling, there are some serious questions about how it is regulated in some countries, including Laos. In this talk, anthropologist Charles Zuckerman will explore the political, economic and moral history of the lottery since 1975 in the city of Luang Prabang. He will discuss the mechanics of the lottery system and ask how it has been rationalized as an economic activity that is coherent with socialist goals. He will also discuss the ways that people play the lottery and what it means to them on the ground.