hanoi lotto

The government is trying to regulate illegal online lottery operations, Finance Minister Bounchom Ubonpaseuth told lawmakers during an extraordinary session of the National Assembly this week. The ministry is looking into investment to develop a system to trace the operators of these illegal lotteries, which often sell lotteries from foreign countries such as Vietnam, even though Laos has its own legal lottery enterprise.

Dokkeo, who has been a lottery winner before, says she is going to use her winnings to pay for a new house, but also wants to travel – “South Korea, Japan, Vietnam,” she said. She also plans to share some of her winnings with family and friends.

But RFA’s sources say lottery officials are rigging the game by manipulating winning numbers. For example, in a drawing on Oct. 14 this year, the number 509 appeared only as 134 on tickets purchased throughout the day and then changed to 662 just 10 minutes before the drawing was to take place, a source told RFA’s Lao Service.