The lottery is a game in which numbers are drawn at random and winners receive a prize, often cash, goods or services. There are many types of lotteries, from state-run ones to private companies run by individuals or groups of people. Some are free and others require a subscription. Some have multiple prize categories and jackpots, while others have one large jackpot. Some are played on a national basis, while others have a European-wide scope.
The number of lottery games available worldwide is staggering. Some of the more popular include the state-run National Lottery in Britain, EuroMillions in France and Spain, and the Powerball in the United States. Privately operated lottery companies are found in the US, Canada, Australia and other countries. In addition, there are a host of web sites offering online lottery-style games for a premium on the base ticket price. The GTech Corporation, headquartered in West Greenwich, Rhode Island, administers 70 percent of the world’s online and instant lottery business.
In Laos, government officials are rigging the lottery system by manipulating winning numbers and blocking access to information on how to buy tickets, sources in the communist country say. Drawings frequently show numbers that vanish from purchased tickets, or appear only on unlucky tickets deemed unlikely to be chosen. In one case, the winning number for Oct. 14 appeared only as 509 on tickets sold throughout the day of the drawing, a source told RFA’s Lao service. Access to the number was restored only an hour before the drawing began.
Lao state official speaking on condition of anonymity meanwhile said that business interests controlling the national lottery also have close ties to the nation’s ruling elite. “The majority of the companies responsible for running the lottery are owned by persons with connections to some of our national leaders, including former prime minister Thongsing and the late president Khamtay Siphandone,” he said. “And there’s no transparency on how much these businesses pay to the state for a concession each year.”
In Canada, buying a ticket in the Irish Sweepstakes was illegal until 1967. That year the federal Liberal government introduced a law allowing the sale of these games and other sweepstakes. The law, called the Omnibus Bill, was meant to bring up-to-date a number of obsolete laws. In addition to lottery games, the Omnibus Bill included a number of other gaming activities. Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau complained about this ‘voluntary tax’ and the federal Minister of Justice argued that it did not violate the law. This dispute eventually ended in the Quebec appeal court.