“Feline,” which symbolizes cats in Lao culture, has appeared four times as winning lottery numbers over the last four months, sparking concerns that the game is being fixed. Vilasack Phommaluck of the committee overseeing the lottery told RFA that such behavior falls outside their purview and added that the ministry may consider cutting drawing times down to once per week to decrease such shenanigans.
Lotteries prizes are designed to entice participation by offering substantial payouts for matching sequences of numbers. Players who match just three numbers can win over 100 million kip (US$2,600), with matching four or more increasing their stakes up to 60-fold; turning a 1,000-kip bet into 6 million kip (about US$2,500).
While lottery officials design prize structures to attract many participants, some believe it opens the door for shenanigans by lottery officials and private business interests with stakes in the game to avoid large pay-outs. On October 14, this year for instance, tickets bearing 509 were no longer sold during that day of drawing due to high demand; RFA spoke with an anonymous source that confirmed this observation.
U.S. residents were stunned to learn of Cheng Saephan’s victory at this month’s $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot draw – an immigrant from Laos battling cancer for eight years and receiving chemotherapy just days prior. Based out of Portland, Oregon he announced that he would share the windfall among himself, his wife Duanpen and Laiza Chao who contributed $100 towards purchasing over 20 tickets together.
Social media users were quick to praise the Laotian winner’s generosity, some suggesting it may be an omen from above that his struggle against cancer will succeed and others believing that his decision to give half of his prize to another friend speaks volumes for his character and deserves this prize.
