This photo taken on Jan. 22, 2019, shows an individual holding a Lotto ticket. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, June 15 (Korea Bizwire) — Doubts have been raised about possible manipulation of the national lottery drawing results after the number of first prize winners hit a record high last week.
To address such doubts, the finance ministry, which oversees the Korea Lottery Commission, have been scrambling to explain the anomaly.
The national lottery, named Lotto, was introduced in South Korea in December 2002 to raise money for government welfare services and sports development.
There were 50 first prize winners in the 1019th weekly national lottery draw held last Saturday, the most since the draw began 20 years ago.
The prize for each winner stood at about 438 million won (US$339,680), far lower than the previous week’s prize of 12.3 billion won each for two winners.
The Ministry of Economy and Finance said that the possibility to win first prize in a lottery draw remains constant at one out of 8.14 million.
“Given that the average sales of lottery tickets are estimated at about 100 million per week, it’s natural to see about 12 first prize winners per week. In reality, however, the number varies from week to week, with less in some weeks and more in others.”
If the numbers are selected on an equal basis by ticket buyers, the number of first prize winners would remain constant at 12. However, ticket buyers show a preference for specific numbers, resulting in the difference in the number of No. 1 winners.
The largest-ever lotto prize was 4.07 billion won in the draw held on April 12, 2003, in which there was only one winner.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
