Laos Lotto is a national lottery that offers participants significant payouts by matching numbers sequentially. This form of legal gambling attracts participants from across the country in hope of experiencing life-altering wins.

Recent years have witnessed an unprecedented surge in Loto winning tickets and prizes, and have attracted people from around the world – particularly the United States, Canada and Europe. While questions regarding its legitimacy remain, thousands still attend each live broadcast drawing of Loto!

Ticket holders carefully follow as the winning numbers are announced, cross-referencing their entries against the official results. Those who select the perfect combination are often delighted to discover that their hard work paid off, while others can be disappointed that what they hoped for wasn’t there; lottery officials have been accused of manipulating winning numbers in order to reduce payouts – one case involved selling 509 tickets but then changing them an hour before results were announced to 134 instead of five!

As a response to these allegations, Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith issued an order on August 17 requesting the Ministry of Finance – responsible for state lottery – work closely with police in managing this problem more effectively. According to this directive, drawing times will be reduced from two weekly drawings and winnings will be handled more transparently; additionally informal football lotteries as well as those purchased via SMS would also be closed down and formal lottery arrangements would cease operations.

Dr. Charles Zuckerman is a linguistic anthropologist with extensive ethnographic research experience in Luang Prabang, including study of its local lottery. In this talk he will discuss both historical and political context of lotteries in Laos as well as what it means to play on one. Furthermore he will examine how Laos uses lottery to rationalize its economy while fulfilling socialist goals.