Misuryeong Winning Lottery Funds Allocated to Lottery Fund
As of August this year, lottery winnings that were not claimed and thus forfeited amounted to 43.6 billion KRW, including three first-prize Lotto winnings totaling 8.3 billion KRW.
Three first-prize online lottery (Lotto) winnings also reverted to the lottery fund after the winners did not claim their rights within one year.
According to data received on the 28th by Yang Kyung-sook, a member of the National Assembly's Planning and Finance Committee from the Ministry of Strategy and Finance's Lottery Commission, the total unclaimed and forfeited lottery winnings from January to August this year amounted to 43.597 billion KRW.
Of the winnings that reverted to the lottery fund by August, 35.758 billion KRW were Lotto winnings. Among these, three first-prize Lotto winnings totaled 8.313 billion KRW.
Second-prize winnings amounted to 850 million KRW (16 cases), third-prize winnings were 1.373 billion KRW (953 cases), and fourth-prize winnings were 4.314 billion KRW (86,274 cases), all of which reached the expiration period. Fifth-prize winnings reached 20.98 billion KRW (4,181,658 cases). Pension lottery winnings amounted to 2.755 billion KRW, and printed lottery winnings totaled 5.084 billion KRW were forfeited.
Lotto (online lottery) and draw-type printed and electronic lottery winnings must be claimed within one year from the payment start date, while instant printed and electronic lottery winnings must be claimed within one year from the end of the sales period.
Winnings whose payment deadlines have expired are fully reverted to the lottery fund according to the Lottery and Lottery Fund Act and are used for public interest projects.
Representative Yang said, “We need to reduce cases where people win the lottery but fail to claim their winnings,” adding, “Active promotion and institutional improvements such as extending the expiration period are necessary.”
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