Lottery officials in the communist country of Laos have been rigging the system, manipulating winning numbers and denying big pay-outs to people who purchase tickets for their drawings, sources tell RFA’s Lao Service. Drawings held three times a week often show numbers that disappear from purchased lottery tickets or appear only a short time before the drawing, the sources say. For example, the number 09 appeared only as 5 on tickets sold during a recent drawing, but then changed to 134 only minutes before the actual draw was held.

A winner of the state-owned Phattana lottery, Dokkeo Saysavath, told RFA she will use some of the prize money to buy a house and to help her family members. “But the most important thing is to give my children a good education,” she said. “And I would also love to travel. I want to visit South Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. It is my dream.”

The finance minister has warned that illegal online lotteries involving foreign countries are booming. He has called for action to regulate them, saying that the operations lure people into habitual betting. He also said that investment is needed to develop a system to trace those involved in the illegal activities.