Vietnamese netizens express big lottery interest

Eight out of 20 keywords most searched in Vietnam last year related to traditional lottery results, according to the latest report released by the British marketing and advertising agency.

Lottery-related search terms included "lottery," "lottery in northern region" and "lottery in southern region."

Vietnam generally does not allow its citizens to gamble, though lottery tickets are popular across the country. State-run lotteries were for years the only form of gambling allowed in Vietnam.

A lottery ticket costs only VND10,000 ($0.4). Traditional lottery tickets in Vietnam have predetermined numbers printed on them, with the highest prize set at VND2 billion ($85,600), raised by 33 percent in early 2018 to increase attraction.

"Movie" was the most searched keyword by Vietnamese netizens in 2019, followed by the term "lottery in northern region."

In addition to lottery, Vietnamese users also searched for "football", "weather", "Facebook," "Google Translate" and news.

As of January 2020, Vietnam has 68.7 million Internet users, increasing by 6.2 million or 10 percent over the previous year.