Electronic lottery top prize wasn't 'completely random'... Donghaeng Lottery knew but kept quiet

[Financial News] Donghaeng Lottery, the operator entrusted with administering the lottery, knew that the top-prize tickets for the instant-win electronic lottery 'Triple Luck' were allocated one per sales segment rather than at random, but did not report it, it has emerged. After evidence was also found that relevant emails had been deleted ahead of an on-site inspection, the Lottery Commission imposed an additional contractual penalty of 30 million won.

On the 27th, the Lottery Commission at the Ministry of Planning and Budget said it had held a plenary meeting the previous day, chaired by Ministry of Planning and Budget Vice Minister Jo Yong-beom, and deliberated on and approved, among other things, a proposal to impose a contractual penalty on the lottery operator.
Triple Luck is an electronic lottery that lets buyers check immediately whether they have won. For each draw, 15 million tickets priced at 1,000 won each are issued, including four top-prize tickets worth 500 million won apiece. From its launch in 2010 through July last year, the 15 million tickets were divided into four segments, with one top-prize ticket allocated to each segment.
The Lottery Commission's secretariat identified this structure in January last year and, in July of the same year, removed the previous allocation restrictions and switched to a completely random system.
A Lottery Commission official said, "With four top-prize tickets among 15 million, the odds remain one in 3.75 million from the buyer's perspective." The official added, "However, since it wasn't completely random, we changed the system on the principle that outcomes should be entirely random."

After conducting an on-site inspection of Donghaeng Lottery in July last year, the Lottery Commission imposed a contractual penalty of 30 million won in September of that year, citing delays in improving the system's structure, among other reasons. However, after receiving an additional tip in late August this year, the commission conducted another on-site inspection last month. It found that Donghaeng Lottery staff had already shared information internally in July 2024 about how the winning tickets were allocated, but had not informed the commission. Evidence also emerged of an attempted cover-up, including the deletion of relevant emails while preparing for the on-site inspection in July last year.
The Lottery Commission found that Donghaeng Lottery had repeatedly breached its duty of care as a responsible manager under the entrustment contract, and imposed an additional contractual penalty of 30 million won, the maximum allowed under the contract. This brings the total contractual penalties imposed on Donghaeng Lottery over the Triple Luck ticket-allocation structure to 60 million won.
The Lottery Commission plans to require Donghaeng Lottery to take measures to prevent a recurrence and monitor their implementation, while separately drawing up a plan to overhaul electronic lotteries.
Last year, Triple Luck sales totaled 51.3 billion won, about 0.7% of total lottery sales (7.6582 trillion won). The average number of users per draw was about 120,000.
[email protected] Kim Su-yeon Reporter