Won the Lottery Jackpot... Lost 300 Billion Won Due to 4,000 Won Shortage

Matched Winning Numbers but Purchase Failed Due to Insufficient Balance
"Dreamed of a Good House and Dream Car... Heartbreaking"

A story has emerged about an unlucky couple in the UK who almost won a staggering 300.8 billion won by hitting the first prize in the lottery but lost it all.

On the 15th (local time), according to local media such as The Sun, Liam McCrohan (23), who studies economics at the University of Hertfordshire, and Rachel Kennedy (21), a business administration student at the University of Brighton, shared their experience on social networks (SNS).

They had been buying lottery tickets with the same numbers for five consecutive weeks, and finally succeeded in matching all the first prize numbers on the fifth try. The prize money was reported to be a total of 182 million pounds (approximately 300.8 billion won).

Rachel (left) and Liam, college students who won approximately 300.8 billion won in the lottery first prize but missed out due to unpaid payment. [Image source=Captured from Rachel Kennedy's Instagram]

Rachel said, “I logged into the lottery application and saw the winning alert, and thought I had hit the jackpot.” Liam also said, “When I heard the lottery winning news, I dreamed of a house and a dream car.”

However, when Rachel called the lottery company to claim the prize, the response was, “The winning numbers are correct, but we cannot verify your lottery purchase history.”

Later, it was found that the cause was a rejected automatic payment. Liam and Rachel had been paying for the lottery tickets via automatic bank transfer, but when they purchased the ticket for the fifth time, there was insufficient balance, so the payment was not completed. The shortfall was only 2.5 pounds (about 4,100 won).

Liam said, “It really broke my heart to hear that we hadn’t actually purchased the ticket,” and added, “Since the numbers we used for five weeks seem to have run out of luck, we will try again with new numbers.”

The winning lottery numbers matched by Liam and Rachel. [Image source=Photo by Liam McCrohan, captured from X (formerly Twitter)]

Meanwhile, in 2016, it was revealed that a couple in the UK was also denied a large lottery prize for a similar reason despite matching all the winning numbers. At that time, Edwina Neillan and David Neillan bought lottery tickets through a smartphone app, and when a notification appeared saying there was insufficient balance, they deposited money into their account and purchased again.

They were excited to receive a prize of 52 million dollars (about 67.8 billion won) after matching all the lottery numbers, but their dream was shattered when it was confirmed that the purchase was made after the deadline. The couple said, “We tried to laugh it off, but it feels like we were scammed,” showing their frustration.

Also, in 2011, in Spain, while the entire village won the lottery prize, one person missed out alone. The ‘El Gordo’ lottery, which is so popular that about 90% of the Spanish population participates, is structured so that everyone in the village who bought a ticket wins. In 2011, the residents of Sodeto village shared about 15.3 billion won per household. However, a Greek-born film director who moved there eight years ago and was unaware of the lottery failed to buy a ticket and missed the chance to win.