Lotteries are an engaging form of entertainment and economic activity in Laos, yet can also cause distressing anxiety and moral disquiet. This talk will examine how Laos regulates and controls this form of gambling by the state. We will trace its political-ethical history since 1975 as well as its prize distribution system before delving deeper into what playing the lottery means to people on the ground.
Recent months have witnessed four lottery draws where 509, the symbolism of felines in Lao culture, was drawn. One lottery salesman told RFA’s Lao Service that Insee, which runs the national lottery system in Laos, knows which numbers people choose so it can manipulate its game to their benefit.
Though many remain concerned with lottery gambling, many still play to help provide for their families and to better their health. Deng Pravatoudom of Toronto, Canada won an incredible CAD 60 Million jackpot by matching her six-digit numbers exactly on January 22. She likened it to fulfilling a 20 year-old dream she’d had about winning such big sums; saying the numbers were an answer from above.
She plans to use her winnings to purchase a new car, refrigerator and computer; pay her daughter’s university fees; and plan a restaurant in the future – this jackpot was one of the largest wins by an individual lottery ticket holder ever in Canadian history at that time and one of the biggest single-ticketholder wins ever recorded in lottery history.
Laos Lottery is a state-owned enterprise offering various games and prizes. Players purchase tickets at convenience stores or other authorized lottery vendors before checking the results by watching live drawings on an official TV channel at specified times daily – giving participants an unforgettable experience when seeing their numbers being drawn live!
While the draw is an integral component of lottery play, people on the ground tend to have much deeper relationships with its prizes due to its disproportionate share of government revenues that is used to fund various social programs and development initiatives.
Vilasack Phommaluck, Chairman of the Steering Committee for Lao National Lotterie, recently addressed RFA’s Lao Service with regard to business interests paying an annual fee to run it. Although his committee doesn’t control what private businesses do, they are considering ways to limit game availability by discontinuing scratchcard lottery to make keeping track of results easier and prevent manipulation by lottery companies. They are also working towards ending illegal online sales of lottery games originating elsewhere.
