Until 1967, buying a lottery ticket was illegal in Canada. In that year, Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau, in a bid to recover some of the costs incurred for the World’s Fair and the new subway system, announced a “voluntary tax.” In exchange for a $2.00 donation, players would be eligible to participate in a drawing with a grand prize of $100,000. This “tax” was different from a traditional lottery in two ways: the prizes were silver bars instead of money and participants had to answer four questions about Montreal correctly in order to win. In spite of these differences, the Montreal Lottery dominated the Canadian market and had more than half of all national sales. Its success caused the federal government to amend the Omnibus Bill, which made it legal for cities and provinces to operate their own lottery systems.
Today, there are dozens of state-licensed lottery operators in the United States and the European Union. In addition to the popular national games, many jurisdictions have local lottery offerings, such as scratch cards, keno and video lottery terminals. Some have even embraced innovative forms of gambling, such as instant lotteries, where participants purchase tickets and receive a winning combination via computer printout.
The first recorded lotteries date back to the 16th century. In the 17th century, the French government introduced a public lottery for Paris city residents and private ones for religious orders, including nuns living in convents. Lotteries became widely popular in Europe and the Americas by the 19th century. In the US, the federal government regulated state-licensed lotteries and authorized private lotteries in the form of scratch cards. In the 1970s, a number of companies developed electronic game machines that sold lottery tickets and provided random number selection.
In Vietnam, selling lottery tickets is one of the only ways for poor people to earn a living. The social security system isn’t yet capable of delivering enough funds to support all of the nation’s less fortunate citizens, so many choose selling lottery tickets as an alternative to begging on the streets. A single-mother lottery seller in Saigon, Huong, says she can make up to 230 000 VND on lucky days, enough to survive and keep her family fed.
However, lottery officials are accused of rigging the system in an effort to avoid large pay-outs. Drawings of the national lottery, held three times a week, often show numbers that disappear from purchased tickets or are deemed unlucky by buyers, RFA’s Lao Service reported in a recent report. For example, the winning number 509 on Oct. 14 disappeared from purchased tickets on the day of the drawing, only to reappear as a number 9 an hour later. Despite the accusations, the lottery remains popular in the communist country.