This undated file photo shows people queuing in front of a sales outlet in Seoul to buy Lotto tickets. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jan. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — A significant portion of adults purchased lottery tickets in the past year, with 56.5 percent of South Koreans over 19 years of age purchased lottery tickets in the past 12 months, a government report has showed.
Among those who purchased lottery tickets in the 12 months prior, 1 in 4 continued to buy lottery tickets on a weekly basis, according to a report by the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
Applying the lottery ticket purchase rate to the nation’s total adult population, it’s estimated that about 24 million people bought lottery tickets in the year prior to the survey.
Among them, 24.4 percent said that they made it a rule to buy lottery tickets every week, while 26.2 percent said that they bought them once a month.
The share of those who spend 5,000-10,000 won (US$4.05-8.10) on average each time they buy lottery tickets stood at 52.8 percent.
By job type, wage workers including blue and white-collar workers accounted for a higher share of 50 percent, while self-employed people accounted for 20.2 percent. Homemakers accounted for 18.9 percent or about one-fifth of the total.
The annual sales of lottery tickets stood at 6.43 trillion won (US$5.20 billion) last year, up 7.6 percent year on year, exceeding the 6 trillion won mark for the first time in history.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
