Whether you’re an avid lottery player or just watching the draws with friends, there is something inherently special about this unique Lao tradition. It’s more than a game – it’s a social leveller and a source of hope for millions in this country where economic opportunities can be scarce. Every announcement of a winning number sends ripples through the nation, with people checking their tickets with hearts pounding in anticipation and a sense of camaraderie.
Despite its popularity, the lottery has not always been free from corruption and mismanagement. Officials have been accused of rigging the system, manipulating the results to avoid large pay-outs, according to a source who spoke to RFA’s Lao Service on condition of anonymity. Drawings often show numbers that are supposedly unlucky, such as 09, vanish from purchased tickets or appear only for a brief time before being replaced by another number, the source said.
The state-owned Insee Trading Company has been largely responsible for managing the national lottery since the late 1960s, and its officials have been implicated in a variety of improprieties. The company pays the government an annual concession fee, but it is not publicly disclosed how much it receives in return for running the lottery. The concession is a significant source of revenue for the state, but some local governments have also begun to run their own provincial lotteries in an attempt to control costs.
Dearest Sister, a new film by director Mattie Do, stars a nearly-blind woman who is visited by ghosts that give her lottery winning numbers. Its supernatural premise sounds preposterous, but this movie makes it work with its dark humor and psychological suspense. The movie also manages to spin its ghoulish premise into class critique, and it is a far better film than many of the Thai horror flicks that get released each year. It was shot in Vientiane, and is written and directed by an American-Lao filmmaker who has been living in the capital for four years. She has a ballet background and speaks Lao as fluently as she does English. The movie is her second feature. She will soon start working on a science-fiction project. It’s a good sign that she has the chops to pull it off.
