Lottery is a popular game that involves drawing numbers to win a prize. This game is played in many countries around the world. In the United States, state governments oversee lottery games. In addition, private companies may operate lottery games under government license. In the United States, players can purchase lottery tickets online. Online lottery sales are growing rapidly. The majority of lottery revenue comes from ticket purchases. Other sources of lottery revenue include prize payouts and advertising revenues.
In Laos, lottery officials are rigging the system in order to avoid large pay-outs, RFA’s Lao Service reports. During the national lottery’s three weekly drawings, winning numbers often vanish from purchased tickets or appear as a different number altogether, a source told RFA. For example, the winning number 509 in last month’s lottery drawing appeared only as a five on tickets sold throughout the day of the drawing. The number was favored by buyers because it is associated with the buffalo, a symbol of good luck, the source said.
A 46-year-old immigrant from Laos will split a Powerball jackpot of $422 million with a friend. Cheng Saephan won the top prize at a news conference in Portland on Monday. The winner said he will use half of the money to provide cancer treatments for his wife, Duanpen, who has been suffering from an unidentified illness since 2016. He is also giving a quarter of the prize to a friend who chipped in $100 to buy the winning tickets. The two friends share a Vietnamese heritage and are members of the Iu Mien ethnic group, which fled from Laos to Thailand and then settled in the U.S. after the Vietnam War.
The Iu Mien community in the Portland area is well-established, with a Buddhist temple, a Baptist church, social organizations and businesses. Many of the immigrants are farmers who helped American forces during the Vietnam War. Saephan’s story will help raise awareness of the Iu Mien people in the United States.
Before 1967 it was illegal to participate in the Irish Sweepstakes in Canada, but that year the federal Liberal government inserted an amendment into the Omnibus Bill, which brought up-to-date a wide range of obsolete laws. The bill was sponsored by Pierre Trudeau, the Minister of Justice.
In Canada, the Omnibus Bill included an amendment allowing provincial governments to regulate lottery systems. But the Quebec Supreme Court later ruled that Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau’s “voluntary tax” was not a lottery because it did not meet the legal definition of a lottery. The court argued that the $2.00 “donation” to take part in the lottery did not constitute a tax and that the lottery was merely an entertainment opportunity. It also pointed out that the silver bars won by participants were not a prize, but rather a payment for participation in the contest. The Montreal City Council appealed the ruling.