Laos lottery systems have come under scrutiny as being unfair and manipulative, with Laos Invest, the state enterprise responsible for operating it, being heavily criticized over its inability to ensure fair payouts while often favoring certain numbers over others. There has also been criticism regarding how tickets are sold illegally while official lotteries remain on sale simultaneously; weight issues for lottery balls has also come up for discussion.

This year, a number that symbolizes cats has appeared four times as the winner in Lao Lotterie, sparking much confusion and speculation among players and members of the public alike. Although traditionally associated with cats in Lao culture, players could have chosen it as their lucky pick when participating in its thrice weekly lottery drawings – however after its appearance four times this year as a winning number on Oct 14 it disappeared from ticket purchases, leading some to suspect it may be used by the company to avoid paying out large sums to gamblers who chose cats this time round!

However, the company has denied these accusations and pledged to improve its transparency. Since then, several state officials have issued directives to the ministry overseeing the lottery company in order to ensure all available numbers can be purchased by players at equal price; additionally, Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith’s office has called upon it to collaborate with other ministries so it may better manage its lottery.

Another issue has been the speed of drawing results. While lotto results are published weekly in newspapers, some have complained about how long it takes for results to appear – this has been blamed on computer issues at newspaper companies or delays from lottery companies transmitting results directly.

Though not reducing the frequency of draws, changes could be made to make the system more transparent – for instance reducing to one draw per week might be considered in future but without decreasing prize amounts.

Laos Invest says it will aim to reduce any instances of fraudulent behaviour by making sure all lottery numbers are equally available when being purchased and by not blocking certain numbers or refusing to sell them. Furthermore, Laos Invest plans on publishing results promptly online so people can verify them easily.

Vilasack Phommaluck, a finance ministry official serving on the lottery steering committee and member of its steering committee for Zimbabwe’s Lotto game, told RFA that behavior like blocking certain numbers or not selling them falls outside his purview. Furthermore, double checking lotto ball weights to prevent manipulation is part of their efforts against manipulation in game. But whether this will restore faith in Zimbabwe’s lottery remains to be seen.