Lottery online is booming, and authorities are working to regulate the illegal operation that lures people into habitual betting, Finance Minister Bounchom Ubonpaseuth told lawmakers. “The ministry has instructed the relevant sector to invest in a system to trace those selling illegal lottery tickets,” he said. Illegal lotteries based in foreign countries including Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia are sold in Laos as many as four times a day, even though the country has its own legal lottery.

A lottery winner has revealed she plans to spend the winnings on her family and travel abroad. “I will buy a new house and use some of it to visit South Korea, Japan and Vietnam,” Dokkeo Phongsyavong, 33, told RFA’s Lao Service. She added that she’s been swamped with texts, emails and calls from friends and strangers since the news of her win spread across social media.

Private business interests have been running the national lottery and rigging drawing results, RFA’s Lao Service has learned. The company responsible for the state-supervised enterprise development lottery has connections to members of the ruling elite, according to a person familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity. Drawings often show numbers that vanish from purchased tickets or are deemed unlucky and not worth the payout, sources say.