The Ministry of Finance has announced the number of monthly lotteries will stay the same, despite calls to increase or reduce their frequency.
Ministry Office Head Khounyon Khammany on Friday said the ministry could not please both sides, because some people wanted more lotteries each month, while others wanted less.
“The government has ordered us not to make any decision on the number of lottery services,” he told Vientiane Times.
Currently there are 10 lotteries each month and proceeds go into the national treasury.
The argument for more lotteries is to increase revenue, while the argument for fewer lotteries is to reduce the risk of people becoming addicted to gambling.
Mr Khounyon said the ministry was in a hard position because several state organisations had requested ministry permission to launch extra lottery services - for example, a lottery service to celebrate the Lao People's Army Day, Lao Labour Day and other important national events.
The state organisations want to use this method to raise money for their projects.
Mr Khounyon said the ministry sympathised with the organisations but would not break government order to maintain the current number of monthly lotteries.
“What we can do is advise the state organisations to consult with the lottery enterprises and ask whether they can share their quota of lottery services,” he said.
“We have tried to convince the enterprises that they must assist these organisations, but it is up to them to help or not.”
Mr Khounyon said the organisations argued that daily lotteries were held in Vietnam without any damage to society.
“The more lottery services, the more money flows into the treasury, making it easier for the government to manage the country,” he said.
Mr Khounyon said people who wanted fewer lotteries argued the government should not promote gambling because it would negatively impact Lao society. They claim people would have no money to save and this would further reduce their chances of rising out of poverty.
“Most of the lottery players are poor people who want to become rich,” he said.
He said the government's decision to maintain the same number of lotteries was fair, because people working in this industry would lose jobs and income if the government reduced the number of lotteries.
Without government-controlled lotteries, Mr Khounyon believes this form of gambling would still take place illegally through the black market, without any benefit for the government or the people.
People going to gamble anyway. This way there is some sort of control and plus the money generate from it will hopefully go to some beneficial use for the people like maybe build or repair school, maintain park, and maybe buy equipment for the tough looking Laos PDR police.
I am not quite sure if the money goes to develop Laos. One thing for sure is that they use money for the celebration in their office, party, tons of beers and dances.
In 2010, Laos will have a new stock market and in that time, I'm sure that large number of rich Lao people will turn from lottery to stock market. At the moment, 10-15 companies in Laos already registered for the Lao stock market.
