Lottery is the process of selecting numbers to win a prize. A lottery may be operated by a state government, an individual or a group of individuals. The prizes are generally paid in cash or goods. Various games are available in a lottery, including instant tickets (also called scratch-off tickets), keno, and video lottery terminals. In the United States, state governments run most lotteries. In the past, private companies also ran lotteries.
Despite being illegal in many jurisdictions, lottery-style games are widely available on the Internet. Some are offered by the operators of legal lotteries, while others are free and operate from offshore locations. The online market is competitive and rapidly growing, with players from around the world accessing and playing games.
In Europe, the most popular lottery is EuroMillions, which was launched in 2004 and has a top prize/jackpot of EUR2.4 billion. In addition, there are numerous regional and local lotteries, most of which are government-run and offer prizes such as holidays and cars. The European Lottery Association (ELA) is the industry body responsible for monitoring and developing the lottery sector in Europe.
The first state-run lottery was launched in France in 1505 by King Francis I. It was subsequently forbidden for two centuries before reappearing at the end of the 17th century. A few private lotteries operated in the middle of the 19th century. However, they were not very successful and closed shortly after launching.
Today, there are four nationwide lotteries in Canada: Lotto 6/49, Lotto Max, Daily Grand and Millionaire Life. These are operated by the Interprovincial Lottery Corporation, a consortium of the five provincial/territorial lotteries: Atlantic Lottery Corporation (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador), Loto-Quebec, Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, and Western Canada Lottery Corporation (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba, Yukon and Northwest Territories, British Columbia). The Société de la Loterie du Canada is a private non-profit organization that supports charitable projects.
A lottery is a form of gambling in which a small percentage of the money collected from ticket sales goes to charity. In the United States, state governments conduct a variety of lotteries to raise funds for public education. In most cases, winnings from a lottery are taxed. The National Lottery in the UK is the biggest, raising over $3.5 billion each year for good causes. Other lotteries include the Quebec Provincial Lottery, the New South Wales Lottery and the Victoria State Lottery.
In this talk, linguistic anthropologist Charles Zuckerman will discuss the political, economic and moral history of lotteries in Laos since 1975. He will consider how the government rationalizes the lottery as an economic activity consistent with socialist goals, and he will explore what playing the lottery, choosing numbers and winning mean for people on the ground. Zuckerman is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Sydney. He is currently working on a book on the language and culture of gambling in Luang Prabang.