Lotteries are an increasingly popular form of gambling in Laos, offering participants an opportunity to win big prizes. But players should understand the risks inherent to lottery play in order to protect themselves properly.
Laos lottery draws are held every last Tuesday of each month on an evening devoted to drawing tickets for lottery draws, each one offering different themes and prizes such as houses, motorcycles or cash. As more tickets are sold the prize pool grows accordingly – currently over one million dollars has been won! Despite such high stakes however lottery sales have decreased over recent years as more people become aware of the possible dangers involved with playing lotteries.
Additionally, the government has implemented tougher rules on the lottery industry to crack down on illegal operations, leading to an unexpected drop in state lottery enterprise revenues; during its first nine months this year alone it collected just over 20 billion Kip or less than half what was collected during 2016.
Laos Lottery is a free app developed and distributed by Sokxay Chaleun Lottery Agency Co., Ltd for Android devices. Part of the Home & Hobby category, Laos Lottery has been downloaded over 50.000 times since June 17, 2018 when the latest update was issued.
Although gambling is illegal in Laos, certain Special Economic Zones provide legal casinos where residents may enjoy popular casino games without fear of prosecution or arrest. Laos residents also can access numerous online casinos without concern of being caught.
RFA’s Lao Service learned from the Ministry of Finance spokesman, which oversees the state lottery, that Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith issued an order on August 17 instructing it to work together with Public Security to reduce lottery drawings from two per week to just one, improve transparency of drawings process, close informal football lotteries as well as chance purchases via short messaging services, as well as eliminate informal football lotteries and lottery chances purchased via short messaging services. He noted allegations against its system as lacking in transparency were unfounded.
Many players remain skeptical, however. For example, many have questioned why cat numbers have appeared four times out of four months in lottery drawings. One source, who spoke on condition of anonymity with RFA news program told RFA’s news program that lottery company knows which numbers people choose and can therefore manipulate its results accordingly.
Concerns include the fact that a woman selling lottery tickets at a market in Luang Prabang experiences difficulty due to her gender and appearance. Though she works for state officials who oversee lottery sales as an integral part of economic growth, she must compete against male sellers who can outsell them and attract more customers – however she manages to overcome these barriers through hard work and maintaining a positive outlook towards her job.