The untold story behind the lottery tickets
In many Northern cities, lottery ticket vendors only appear sporadically at bus stations or hospital gates. But in the South, especially in Can Tho City, the image of lottery ticket vendors has become familiar on many roads and alleys.
PV's record on 30. 4 street (Ninh Kieu ward), Ms. Nguyen Thi Binh (55 years old) led her disabled son sitting in a wheelchair to sell lottery tickets. Stopping at a roadside sweet soup shop, she gently bent down and asked the customer: "Is there a lottery ticket, madam?".
More than 10 years ago, family upheaval caused Ms. Binh to leave her hometown to go to the city to earn a living. Without a stable job, she chose to sell lottery tickets on the street to raise her children. Every day, she receives several hundred lottery tickets from agents and then goes all over crowded streets. Some days she sells almost all, earning more than one hundred thousand VND, but also many days the tickets are still intact, so she has to accept losses.
If you don't go, you don't have money. Even if it rains, you have to go, even if it's sunny, you have to go," Ms. Binh said.
Not far from there, Mr. Le Van Tam (38 years old, from An Giang) also weaves through the traffic during rush hour to sell lottery tickets. Once working as a construction worker, but after a work accident that seriously injured his leg, he could not continue his old job.
At first, it was very shy, but there was no other way" - Mr. Tam shared. Every day, he tried to sell about 150-200 tickets to cover his life. On rainy or deserted days, income is almost non-existent.
Expanding social security for street lottery ticket sellers
According to statistics from the Ministry of Finance in 2025, 21 lottery companies in the Southern region alone achieved a total revenue of about 155,500 billion VND, of which about 52,000 billion VND contributed to the budget.
At the discussion session on socio-economic issues at the First Session of the 16th National Assembly, delegate Chau Quynh Dao (An Giang delegation) proposed that the National Assembly and the Government continue to review and improve the legal system on labor and social insurance.
At the same time, she said that it is necessary to recognize this as a specific group of freelance workers to have appropriate support policies to help them access voluntary social insurance and improve their lives.
Talking to Lao Dong Newspaper, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bui Thi An - Director of the Institute of Natural Resources, Environment and Community Development, former National Assembly Deputy of the XIII term - expressed her support for the proposal to support lottery ticket sellers to participate in social insurance.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bui Thi An said that this is a group of freelance workers whose lives are still difficult and precarious, so they need to be given more attention in social security policies.
According to her, the policy of inclusive development must ensure "no one is left behind", therefore, vulnerable labor groups such as lottery ticket sellers need to be supported by the State to have more conditions to stabilize their lives and ensure long-term social security. She assessed that the proposal to expand support for this labor group is necessary and commendable.
However, she also believes that it is necessary to specifically classify each group to have support levels suitable to the actual situation, instead of applying a common policy for everyone. For particularly difficult cases, the support level needs to be higher to help them maintain their participation in social insurance.
Ms. An proposed that functional agencies review the overall number of lottery ticket sellers nationwide, fully statistics on living conditions, income and circumstances of each case to build a database to serve policy planning.
She emphasized that commune and ward authorities are the units that best understand the actual situation of the people, so they need to participate in objective assessments, thereby ensuring support for the right people and the right needs.
It is necessary to try to create conditions for them to have stable livelihoods and better development opportunities" - Ms. An proposed.
