The state-run Vietlott lottery in Vietnam announced Thursday that two people will split a jackpot worth US$12.4 million. However, sources in the communist country of Laos say that lottery officials manipulate results by rigging drawings. One example happened on Oct. 14 this year, when the winning number 509 mysteriously vanished from tickets sold throughout the day before the drawing and appeared only as a five minutes before the drawing began, a source told RFA’s Lao Service. Private business interests with stakes in the national lottery are believed to include members of the country’s ruling elite, the source said. The government should retake control of the lottery, he added.