A Lao woman who won the national lottery said she would first share the winnings with her family and then use some of it for travel to countries such as South Korea and Japan. “The money would be my ticket to explore the world,” Dokkeo, 33, told RFA’s Lao Service. She said she has been bombarded with calls, text messages and social media notifications since her win was announced.

The official national lottery is run by private business interests with links to the country’s ruling elite. Drawings in which numbers vanish from purchased tickets or are deemed unlucky have become commonplace, sources say. In one case on Oct. 14 this year, the number 09 appeared only as 5 on tickets sold throughout the day of the drawing before disappearing in a broadcast on the day of the event, a source told RFA.

Finance Minister Bounchom Ubonpaseuth told parliament recently that illegal lotteries based in foreign countries such as Vietnam are being sold online as often as four times a day in Laos. He called for investment in a system to trace those involved in illegal lotteries and to regulate them.