Lotteries are a form of gambling in which people buy a chance to win money or other prizes, usually through random selection. They are a legal activity in most countries and can be conducted either by state-run organizations or private enterprises. Lottery games can be played in many different ways, including via the Internet, where participants can purchase tickets and receive results online. Some websites allow players to make multiple purchases and receive multiple draws, while others offer single-draw chances. Some are free to play, while others charge a premium on top of base ticket prices.
In the United States, state governments control and regulate lotteries, but private companies also operate them. A number of lottery-style games are available on the Internet, often with state-specific rules and regulations. Many of these sites are run by large companies, such as GTech Corporation in West Greenwich, Rhode Island. These companies have developed technology that allows them to process large numbers of entries in a relatively short amount of time. They are also able to verify winners and payouts without the need for human oversight.
Lottery-style games are becoming more common in the US, and there are a variety of different ways to play them. In addition to traditional state-run lotteries, private business operators are offering products like instant scratch-off tickets and lottery-style games with a digital twist. The popularity of these products is fuelled by the fact that they can be played on mobile devices and can be purchased at a much lower cost than traditional lottery tickets.
A Lao immigrant in Oregon has won a $1.3 billion jackpot prize, the fourth largest Powerball prize ever. Forty-six-year-old Cheng Saephan says he will share the winnings with his wife and a friend. Saephan and his wife, Duanpen, live in Portland. They are members of the Iu Mien, an ethnic group that fled Vietnam for Thailand and then the United States to avoid retribution from the American military during the Vietnam War. The group now lives mainly along the West Coast of the United States.
In Canada, the national lottery is operated by interprovincial commissions of provincial and territorial governments: Atlantic Lottery Corporation (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador), Loto-Québec (Quebec), Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (Ontario), and Western Canada Lottery Corporation (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut). They are governed by federal laws that set out a set of rules for lotteries. Until 1967 buying a lottery ticket was illegal in Canada, but that year the Liberal government introduced an Omnibus Bill to bring up-to-date outdated legislation concerning lotteries.
The talk will explore the political, economic and moral history of lotteries in Laos since 1975, and examine how the state rationalized them as an economic activity consistent with socialist goals. It will also discuss what it was like to do ethnographic research on the lottery in Luang Prabang from 2013-2016, with a focus on what playing the lottery and choosing numbers meant for people on the ground.