Lottery Online Is Easy And Safe
Once upon a time enthusiastic lottery players would spend thousands of dollars to travel overseas in order to buy their tickets. Luckily for them, they can now play a variety of international lotteries from the comfort of their own home. This saves them the cost of travelling abroad, the hassle of finding an outlet and the risk of losing their winning ticket. Using an online lotto agent like Giant Lottos also allows them to play in multiple lotteries simultaneously.
In New Zealand, government-owned Lotto operates the nation’s four national games, including the Lotto, Keno, Bullseye and Instant Kiwi scratch card games. Profits from the games are distributed by the Lottery Grants Board to various community groups and charities. The Lottery Grants Board is a statutory body and operates independently from the Ministry of Justice.
The Oregon Lottery has announced a winner of its Powerball game, with the top prize amounting to more than $1.3 billion. Forty-six-year-old Cheng Saephan, who lives in Portland, said he and his wife will take half of the prize money, and give the other half to a friend who helped them purchase their shared tickets. He is a member of the Iu Mien ethnic group, who came to the United States in large numbers as part of a refugee rescue program after the Vietnam war. The family owns a restaurant and two convenience stores.
Sources in Laos say lottery officials are rigging the system in order to avoid big pay-outs. They say a number from the drawing often disappears from purchased tickets or is deemed unlucky and unlikely to be drawn. In one example, the number 509 appeared only as a 5 on tickets sold throughout the day of the Oct. 14 drawing, a source told RFA’s Lao Service.
Lao business interests with stakes in the lottery are owned by members of the ruling party’s elite, sources say. They pay the government a fee for their concession and don’t answer public inquiries about how much they make in profits. The concession is a controversial issue in the country.
Officials in the communist nation are expected to announce the winner of this year’s Powerball prize later this month. The winner will be required to go through a security and vetting process before being allowed to keep the prize money. The winner, who must come forward publicly to claim the prize, is not being identified due to privacy laws. Only a small number of winners are allowed to remain anonymous. Winners have a year to collect their prize money. Mario Ritter Jr. adapted this story for VOA Learning English. Additional reporting by Laiza Chao in Portland, Oregon.