Lottery is a form of gambling in which participants purchase chances to win a prize. Prizes vary, but may include cash, goods, or services. In the United States, state governments regulate and oversee lotteries. In addition to state-licensed operators, private companies sell lottery products and services in the United States. These companies are called “lottery re-sellers.” They do not participate in the drawing process. In Canada, the provincial and territorial governments run the four national games of the Canada Lottery: Lotto 6/49, Lotto Max (which replaced Lotto Super 7 in September 2009), Daily Grand, and Millionaire Life.
The governing body of the Canada Lottery is the Interprovincial Lottery Corporation, which is a consortium of the five regional lottery commissions owned by their respective provincial/territorial governments: Atlantic Lottery Corporation (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador), Loto-Quebec (Quebec), Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (Ontario), Western Canada Lottery Corporation (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Yukon Territory, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut), and BC Lottery Corporation (British Columbia).
In Laos, the state lottery’s profits are distributed by the country’s ruling elite, with most of its business interests belonging to members of the ruling coalition party’s families, according to sources interviewed by RFA. They also note that the companies that manage the lottery are ill-equipped to conduct audits. Lottery winnings are rarely disclosed publicly.
While the state lottery’s business interests are often based on the premise that people are willing to buy chance, some officials in the communist nation have been accused of rigging the system to avoid large pay-outs. For example, on Oct. 14 this year, the number 509 appeared as a winning number in the national lottery drawing only to vanish from purchased tickets on the same day, a source told RFA’s Lao Service.
The government of Laos recently sent a directive to the ministry that oversees the legal state lottery to reduce drawings to one per week and address complaints about transparency in the system. The government also ordered the ministry to crack down on informal football lotteries and lottery chances purchased via short messaging service. Despite these efforts, the illegal lotteries are still active and the lottery’s revenue continues to drop. It is unclear how long these measures will be effective.