Lao state lottery officials are rigging the national lottery in order to avoid large pay-outs, RFA’s Lao Service has learned. Private business interests who run the lottery include members of the ruling elite and their families, sources say. Drawings of the national lottery are regularly disrupted by suspicious manipulations. For example, on Oct. 14 this year, a popular number — 509 — mysteriously disappeared from purchased tickets for the day’s lottery drawing only to return as a winning number in the final drawing. The private interests who run the lottery are not disclosed, and no one oversees them, sources say.