China's 'Double Color Ball' Lottery Awards 120 Billion Won Prize
20s Winner "Couldn't Believe It, Checked Multiple Times... It Was Surprising"
A lottery jackpot winner of 680 million yuan (approximately 125.3 billion KRW) has emerged in China, attracting attention. This amount is the highest prize in the history of Chinese lotteries.
On the 7th, local media reported that in the 2024016th draw of the "Double Color Ball (雙色球)" lottery held on the 6th, a 28-year-old Mr. Duan from Guiyang City, Guizhou Province, was lucky enough to win the accumulated prize of 680 million yuan. This amount exceeds the previous highest Chinese lottery jackpot of 570 million yuan (approximately 105 billion KRW) by 100 million yuan (approximately 18.4 billion KRW), and it is the first prize over 100 million yuan awarded this year.
The winner, Mr. Duan, is known to be a self-employed small business owner. In an interview with the media, Mr. Duan said, "At first, I couldn't believe it and checked several times," adding, "I am extremely happy and amazed."
China's Double Color Ball lottery operates by selecting 6 red balls and 1 blue ball for betting. The prize increases as more participants join, and recently, due to the combined issues of youth unemployment and aging population, the lottery buying craze in China has intensified, which seems to have driven the jackpot higher as well. As of October 2023, the number of new lottery retailers in China increased by 38% compared to 2022, and the cumulative lottery sales reached 475.876 billion yuan (approximately 86.02 trillion KRW).
In December last year, a case emerged in China where a winner received over 40 billion KRW by purchasing about 50,000 lottery tickets with the same number, raising suspicions of manipulation locally. Winner A, who bet on the "Kuaile 8" lottery in Jiangxi Province and received 220 million yuan (approximately 40.2 billion KRW), purchased 49,250 tickets with the same number at a cost of 1 million yuan (approximately 18 million KRW). The prize for matching all 7 numbers was only 4,475 yuan (approximately 800,000 KRW), but by buying about 50,000 tickets with the same number, the total payout increased to 220 million yuan. It is unknown how the winner purchased more than 10,000 tickets.
In comparison, the domestic Lotto jackpot in Korea initially sold tickets for 2,000 KRW per game when launched in 2002, and the first prize rolled over, reaching a record high of 40.7 billion KRW and hundreds of billions of KRW. However, due to an excessive Lotto craze, the ticket price was changed to 1,000 KRW per game from 2004, and since then, the jackpot has not rolled over, with a first prize winner every week. Currently, the first prize amount is in the mid-1 billion KRW range.
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