Lotteries are government-sponsored games wherein participants purchase a ticket for a chance to win a prize. The prizes may be cash or goods. In many states, the proceeds from the sale of tickets are used to fund public education systems. In addition to state lotteries, there are also privately run lottery games. Privately operated lotteries are more common in the United States than their counterparts overseas. While the majority of lottery games are played in the form of a draw, there are some online lotteries that require participants to answer multiple-choice questions before awarding a prize. These types of games are often referred to as scratch-off or instant games.
Lottery officials in Laos are rigging the system, manipulating winning numbers in order to avoid large pay-outs, sources in the communist nation tell RFA’s Lao Service. Drawings in the country’s national lottery, which take place three times each week, are often riddled with irregularities. For example, on Oct. 14, a winning number that appeared on many purchased tickets – 509 — disappeared from the system during the day of the drawing, only to be restored again an hour before the draw, an RFA source in Vientiane said.
Some of the companies that oversee the nation’s legal state lottery include individuals with links to the ruling elite, RFA’s source in Vientiane says. The official adds that the government should resume control of the lottery and ensure it is not being run by private business interests with ties to the ruling regime.
The winner of the $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot has decided to split his prize with a friend who chipped in $100 to buy the winning ticket, the Oregon Lottery announced. The winner is named as Cheng Saephan of Portland, an immigrant from the Laotian province of Champasak who works in a local warehouse. He plans to use some of the money for cancer treatments.
In Canada, where gambling is legal, the provincial governments oversee four nationwide lottery systems: Lotto 6/49, Lotto Max (which replaced Lotto Super 7 in September 2009), Daily Grand, and Millionaire Life. The Interprovincial Lottery Corporation operates the others.
In Laos, the provincial governments are also responsible for the lottery system, but they have been unable to curb illegal activities such as buying chances through mobile phone short messaging services. In an effort to improve transparency, the Lao prime minister’s office issued a directive on Aug. 17 asking the Ministry of Finance, which oversees the legal state lottery, to work with police to better manage the system. The directive stipulated that drawing from the state lottery should be reduced from two to one a week, and winnings must be handled more transparently. RFA’s Ounkeo Souksavanh and Bounchanh Mouangkham contributed to this report.