Lao state lottery officials are rigging the system and manipulating winning numbers, according to RFA’s Lao Service. Drawings for the legal state lottery are often disrupted by the unauthorized sale of tickets and the manipulation of numbers, sources in the communist nation say. Private business interests involved in the national lottery have connections to ruling elite families, the sources say. On Aug. 17, the office of Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith sent a directive ordering the ministry overseeing the lottery to reduce drawings from two to one a week and handle the process more transparently. Reported and translated by Ounkeo Souksavanh and Bounchanh Mouangkham.