The lottery is a popular pastime for many people, but the government has taken steps to regulate it. In addition to requiring that lottery games be conducted in an open and transparent manner, the law requires all winnings be paid out to winners within 30 days of the drawing. This law protects players from shady operators. However, some players still take risks with their winnings. Some are willing to spend a lot of money on a single ticket, hoping to win the jackpot. Others are more cautious, buying several tickets with the hope of winning a smaller prize.
New Zealand’s state-owned lottery company, Lottery New Zealand (formerly the New Zealand Lotteries Commission), operates four games: the main Lotto, Keno, Bullseye and Instant Kiwi scratch card games. Lottery profits are distributed by the Lottery Grants Board directly to charities and community organizations. Sport and Recreation New Zealand, Creative New Zealand and the New Zealand Film Commission also receive allocations from the Lottery Grants Board.
Online gambling laws have not kept pace with technological change, making it possible for lottery-style games to be offered over the Internet without incurring the usual gaming taxes and fees. As a result, a number of sites have sprung up offering these services, often charging premiums on the base lottery price. Some sites claim to offer free online games, but most require a deposit before allowing the player to play.
Officials in the communist country of Laos have been rigging the national lottery, manipulating winning numbers in order to avoid large pay-outs, sources tell RFA’s Lao Service. For example, the winning number in a drawing on Oct. 14 this year appeared only as a 5 on purchased tickets throughout the day of the drawing, despite a large number of people attempting to buy tickets with that particular number.
Laos — a former French colony — is a landlocked Southeast Asian nation that has seen significant economic growth in recent years. The economy has shifted away from agriculture and towards manufacturing and service industries. Lottery sales are a major component of the economy, with prizes amounting to more than half of GDP.
Charles Zuckerman, an anthropologist at the University of Sydney, has studied Laos for over 20 years. His doctoral research explored the moral and social dimensions of gambling in Luang Prabang, and he is currently working on a book based on that work. In this talk, he will trace the political, economic and moral history of lotteries in Laos since 1975. He will then discuss what the lottery was like on the ground in Luang Prabang while he was conducting his ethnographic fieldwork in 2013 and 2016, with a focus on what playing the lottery, choosing numbers and winning meant for people there. His talk will be followed by a Q&A.