Lotteries are a form of gambling where people can win prizes for correctly matching numbers. Prizes are often money, but some can also be goods or services. In some countries, lottery games are regulated and overseen by government agencies. However, there are also unregulated lotteries where the chances of winning are very low. Regardless of the lottery’s legality in your country, you should always play responsibly and follow the rules.
The state-run Vietlott lottery has awarded a jackpot totaling US$12.4 million to two winners following Thursday’s drawing. The jackpot for the popular Lotto 1 game was won by a pair of customers from Ho Chi Minh City while the prize for Lotto 2 was shared by one customer in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province. The jackpot was the fourth-largest in the history of the Lotto 1.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A Laotian immigrant who won a Powerball lottery jackpot of $1.3 billion in Oregon will split $422 million after taxes with his wife and a friend, according to the state lottery. Forty-six-year-old Cheng Saephan, who lives in the Portland area, wore a blue sash at a news conference saying “Iu Mien USA” and was joined by his family and friends. The Portland-area Iu Mien community is large, with a Buddhist temple, a Baptist church, social organizations and businesses. Saephan and his family are part of the Iu Mien ethnic group from Southeast Asia who helped American troops during the Vietnam War. They later fled to Thailand for fear of retribution and settled in the United States.
In Canada, there are four nationwide lottery games: the Lotto 6/49, Lotto Max (which replaced Lotto Super 7 in September 2009), Daily Grand and Millionaire Life. These games are operated by the Interprovincial Lottery Corporation, a consortium of five regional lotteries owned by their provincial/territorial governments: Atlantic Lottery Corporation (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador), Loto-Quebec (Quebec), Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (Ontario) and Western Canada Lottery Corporation (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut).
Sources in Laos say lottery officials in that communist nation are rigging the system to avoid large pay-outs. They are manipulating the drawings, which take place three times each week, by making numbers disappear from purchased tickets or avoiding those that appear to be unlucky. The number 509, for example, appeared as a 5 only on tickets sold on Oct. 14 this year, after many buyers sought out tickets containing that number, the sources told RFA’s Lao Service. They said the number should have been shown as a 9 in order to avoid large payouts. They also accused lottery officials of taking bribes to manipulate the system.