A 46-year-old immigrant from Laos has won a Powerball lottery jackpot worth $1.3 billion. Cheng Saephan was able to keep his identity secret for months until winning the huge prize, which is said to be the fourth-largest in history. He shared the money with his wife and a friend. They will use it to help cancer patients. He also plans to make a donation to his home country’s government.
The winner bought his ticket at a Plaid Pantry convenience store in Oregon. He had to go through a security and vetting process before he could be revealed. Under state law, there are few exceptions to the requirement that winners must share their identities. The winner must claim the prize within a year. The lottery says it had to rework the way it handles jackpot prizes and other large payouts after a previous winner hid his identity for more than six years to avoid taxes and penalties.
Buying lottery tickets online is legal in many countries around the world, including most of Europe. There are also online lotteries that offer real-world prizes such as cars and apartments. Some of these websites even have live drawing results that can be viewed on a computer or mobile device. Some online lotteries are operated by national governments, while others are run by private companies.
Lotteries are a popular source of revenue for many states and municipalities. Some are state-run while others are privately operated by local groups, churches, or charities. In most cases, the money from a lottery is used for public services. However, there are some concerns about the legality of online lotteries. Some people believe they are unfair to the poor and that the profits from these games are often used for other purposes.
In the communist country of Laos, the lottery is run by a small group of business interests with connections to the ruling elite. Despite complaints that the lottery system encourages habitual gambling, the country has no other legal means of raising revenue. Sources tell RFA’s Lao Service that some lottery officials are rigging the system to manipulate winning numbers and prevent high pay-outs. For example, the number 09 appeared only as 5 on purchased tickets during a recent drawing, while a number 134 disappeared from purchased tickets before that day’s drawing.
The company responsible for running the national lottery in Laos is owned by a group of business interests that include members of the country’s ruling elite, according to sources who spoke to RFA. The officials are also accused of limiting the number of national lottery drawings to two per week and of stopping sales of scratchcard lottery tickets. They are allegedly making the moves to discourage gamblers from becoming addicted to gambling.