In the small landlocked Southeast Asian nation of Laos, the lottery is more than just a game of chance. It’s a national tradition, a way of life for many, and a source of hope. Each announcement of the results sends ripples of anticipation across the country as thousands of people check their tickets with hearts pounding in hopes that they are the lucky winners. The winnings are used to bolster household income, invest in small businesses, or put toward dreams and ambitions. But it is also important for citizens to remember that the lottery is a form of gambling, and that the scales of luck could tilt at any time.
But recently the credibility of the lottery has been called into question. Drawings in the thrice-weekly game often show numbers that vanish from purchased tickets or are deemed unlucky and unlikely to be picked, sources tell RFA’s Lao Service. For example, the number 509, which is associated with the buffalo, a symbol of good fortune in Laos, appeared only as a 5 on purchased tickets throughout the day of a drawing on Oct. 14. Yet it suddenly became available an hour before the drawing, only to disappear again shortly thereafter.
Those shenanigans have raised concerns among players about whether the national lottery is being run honestly. The government has responded by announcing that it will limit the sale of certain numbers, and it has said it may reduce the frequency of the drawing to once per week in the future. A Finance Ministry official serving on the committee that oversees the lottery told RFA that a change in the number of drawings would make it easier to keep track of the numbers and help restore faith in the game. But he declined to say whether other changes might be made, including blocking or not selling numbers that are considered unlucky.
Another concern relates to the choice of winning numbers. Last August the three-digit sequence 354, which represents the cat in the country’s culture, was drawn four times in a row in the lottery. On each occasion the number was changed to a different one that also represented an animal, such as the three-digit combination of 694 for a monkey or 944 for a bear.
Mattie Do is an American-born director who grew up in California but maintains a close connection with her ancestors’ homeland. She started making movies about four years ago and has only a few formal filmmaking classes under her belt. Her latest, Dearest Sister, is a Lao-language horror flick. Her second movie, a sci-fi drama, is in the works.
