Latest news with #DongHangLottery
Korea Herald
10-03-2025
- Business
- Korea Herald
Unusual all-20s lottery numbers in Korea spark rigging allegations. We calculated the odds
Winning set of 20, 21, 22, 25, 28, and 29 yields 36 winners, each with once-in-745 years chance Unusual lottery results in South Korea have once again sparked heated online debate, as all six winning numbers in the 1162nd DongHang Lottery draw announced Saturday fell within the 20s. The winning numbers are 20, 21, 22, 25, 28, and 29, plus a bonus number of 6. In this lottery, players pick 6 different numbers between 1 and 45. According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance's Lottery Commission, 36 people matched these six numbers, splitting the first-prize money. They will each take home 823,931,021 won, which is approximately $567,000. Among the winners, 23 chose their numbers manually, 11 relied on automatically generated numbers, and 2 used a semi-automatic selection system. Despite the rare combination of all 20s numbers raising eyebrows and chatter online, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, which oversees the state-run lottery operator DongHang Lottery, continues to dismiss any chances of fraud. It says that every draw is broadcast nationwide in real-time and undergoes strict inspections of machines and balls before the official announcement. In an effort to reassure the public, DongHang Lottery invited 100 randomly selected observers — five times the usual 20 — to watch a live drawing at MBC studios in Sangam-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, last November. In South Korea's standard 6/45 lottery, 8,145,060 sets of six numbers could be drawn. Of those possibilities, only 210 sets have all six numbers in the 20s. That means, on average, you would expect to see an 'all 20s' draw about once in every 38,786 drawings — or about 0.0026 percent of the time. To put that into perspective, if the lottery is drawn once per week, you might statistically expect an 'all-20s' result around once every 745 years.
Korea Herald
30-01-2025
- Business
- Korea Herald
Koreans chase jackpot dreams in record numbers
Lottery sales reach an all-time high of 5.95 trillion won in 2024 Despite the long odds, Koreans are betting big on the lottery, with Lotto sales soaring to nearly 6 trillion won ($4.16 billion) last year. According to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance and DongHang Lottery — the firm designated by the Ministry of Economy and Finance to operate the national lottery —Lotto sales reached an all-time high of 5.95 trillion won in 2024. 'The explosive increase in lottery sales, which are mainly purchased by the working class, shows how difficult the current economy is,' said Rep. Shin Yeong-dae of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea who obtained the data. The game gained massive popularity in 2003, just a year after its launch, with sales hitting 3.8 trillion won that year. However, concerns over excessive gambling led the government to introduce regulations. One rule capped jackpot rollovers at twice the amount — if there was no top winner for three consecutive weeks, the prize would go to the next tier of winners. Additionally, in 2004, the price of a single Lotto ticket was reduced from 2,000 won to 1,000 won, causing annual sales to dip below 3 trillion won. Despite these restrictions, sales have steadily climbed over the years, surpassing 3 trillion won again in 2014, crossing the 4 trillion mark in 2019, and exceeding 5 trillion won in 2021. At this pace, sales are projected to top 6 trillion won by 2026. Meanwhile, in 2024, there were 763 jackpot winners. The largest payout of the year came on Nov. 23, when eight winners split first prize, receiving 3.32 billion won each. The most winners in a single draw occurred on July 13, with 63 people sharing the top prize, each taking home 420 million won. The busiest week for Lotto sales was leading up to the Feb. 10 drawing, with 126.6 billion won worth of tickets sold. In contrast, the slowest sales week was before the Aug. 3 drawing, when sales dipped to 109.1 billion won.
