Lottery online refers to lottery games played over the Internet. They are often based on a random number generator and require players to pay an entry fee in order to participate. The prize money is awarded to the winning ticket holders after a draw. The first lottery to be played over the Internet was the PLUS Lotto in 1995, which partnered with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to support online transactions. Since that time, the industry has grown rapidly and now there are many companies offering services relating to lottery games. Some of the leading lottery companies are GTech Corporation, headquartered in West Greenwich, Rhode Island and iLottery, a division of Scientific Games in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Laos officials are rigging the country’s national lottery, manipulating the numbers of winning tickets to avoid large payouts, sources in the communist nation tell RFA’s Lao service. Officials in the capital Vientiane are removing lucky numbers from purchased tickets before the drawing, which is held three times each week. For example, the winning number 509 in a recent drawing appeared only as a “5” on tickets purchased throughout the day of the drawing. The official in charge of the lottery told the media that he was aware of these irregularities and that a review of the numbers would be conducted.
The history of the lottery dates back to the Renaissance in Italy, where they were used as a way of raising funds for charitable purposes. They became popular in France in the 17th century, where they were called loteries. They disappeared for two centuries, but then reappeared in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, as public lotteries in Paris and private ones for religious orders.
In the United States, state governments run lotteries. The most famous is the New York state lottery, which was launched in 1849 and has a current top prize of $422 million after taxes. Other notable US lotteries include the Florida Lottery, Colorado Lottery, and Washington State Lottery.
Canada has four nationwide lotteries: Lotto 6/49, Lotto Max, Daily Grand, and Millionaire Life. The provinces and territories operate these lotteries through their respective regional lottery commissions, which are owned by the provincial and territorial governments. Canada’s federal Liberal government introduced a special law in 1967 that brought the provinces and territories into compliance with outdated laws concerning lotteries.
Several European countries have national lottery games, including Spain’s Loterias y Apuestas del Estado and the EuroMillions, managed by the Camelot Group. In addition, the United Kingdom has its National Lottery and a privately run Health Lottery.