A Lao woman has won the lottery, and her phone hasn’t stopped ringing with calls, texts, and notifications from friends and strangers who want to know how she plans to spend her prize money. Dokkeo, a 33-year-old mother of four, says that family is her top priority but she will also use some of the funds for travel. She lists South Korea, Japan, and Vietnam as her dream destinations. “With the amount of money I’ll win, I can buy a new house, and give some to my children,” she told RFA. “I can even afford to go on vacation a few times.”
The government has been struggling with how to address illegal lotteries. Many of these operate online and are difficult to track because they do not require purchasing a ticket. The minister has pledged to take action, but he said more investment is needed to create a system that can trace players.
He told lawmakers that officials are currently investigating the issue and will work with other countries to prevent them from selling tickets online. He also warned that the ministry will stop granting licenses to companies that sell lottery products if they are found to be breaking the law.
But the minister acknowledged that it is hard to track these companies, since they operate on a global scale and are often run by small groups of people. He said the ministry has contacted several foreign companies to request information about their operations, but they have refused to cooperate. He added that the ministry will reduce the number of lottery drawings from three to two per week in response to concerns about the integrity of the game.
Some governments have tried to regulate lottery operations by requiring them to be run by state-owned companies. This would ensure that the games are fair and transparent. However, this has not proven successful. Many of these states have been unable to enforce their regulations, while others have allowed private companies to sell lottery products.
Until 1967, buying a lottery ticket in Canada was illegal. That year, the federal Liberal government introduced a special bill called an Omnibus Bill that sought to bring up to date a number of outdated laws, including the one that made it illegal to play a lottery. The law was sponsored by Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau, who proposed a voluntary tax in return for silver bars that could be used to purchase city services. The bill was not passed. But Drapeau’s proposal inspired a variety of other lottery schemes, both public and private. Many of these were organized under the name of a municipal or provincial corporation. Those that were not operated by the local government were often marketed as being part of a national lottery. Other lotteries were organized on a community basis or for religious orders. Some of these still exist today, including the Canadian provincial lottery and Quebec’s Loterie du Québec. Others are now defunct.