Hanoi Lotto is one of Vietnam’s most beloved lottery games, easy to play and providing much-needed revenue for government services and employment opportunities. However, before engaging in Hanoi Lotto it is crucially important that one fully understands all its associated risks; many lives have been lost as a result of playing. Thus it should always be played responsibly.
Vietnamese lottery is a multibillion-dollar industry with an intricate distribution chain. A lottery company prints tickets and gives them to wholesale distributors who, in turn, give them to retailers; each retailer receives 13% commission from the state for selling. Traditionally, sellers included women, children, elderly individuals and those with physical disabilities. Now more professionals who have lost their professional jobs due to economic uncertainty have joined this lucrative profession; its presence can even be found swarming the streets of Ho Chi Minh City where ticket sellers congregate like mad.
Some are migrants from rural provinces living in overcrowded boarding houses; others may be homeless and forced to sell lottery tickets as the only means of survival. A complex web of ticket-sellers services this sprawling metropolis of 10 million, many recruited from outlying villages while there are also plenty of youngsters axed from professional careers who hawk lottery tickets for survival. Numerous private firms compete for business ownership within this sprawling metropolis – some belonging to local governments while most belong to private companies such as BCorp – Berjaya Gia Thinh (Berjaya GTI).
Van Trinh, a lottery vendor from Thanh Hoa province in Vietnam, reported earning approximately $600 daily from selling tickets and sending back some of her earnings home with her mother and seven younger siblings living in poverty conditions. Other vendors reported more modest profits but enough income to support themselves and their families.
Each ticket costs 10,000 dong. Peddlers offer stacks of pre-printed tickets that contain numbers corresponding to different provinces; potential buyers choose their tickets and pay the peddler, who then writes down their chosen numbers on small slips of paper and hands it back over.
Lottery ticket vendors employ various tactics to attract customers. Some place them near the entrance of shops and restaurants, while others spread them around busy public areas – sometimes offering free or discounted tickets depending on the situation.
The draws themselves are dull affairs, featuring women dressed in gray pants suits spinning rickety green cages while displaying winning numbers in an uneven line. Meanwhile, in the audience barefoot young men chain smoke while gazing upon numbers written on their palms.
At 4:30 pm each year, lottery company officials announce the winning numbers. Each year, up to 30 prizes with various categories and values are up for grabs; with first place winning 100 billion dong ($3.45 million). Other categories have minimum prizes of 5 billion dong.