"Honey, Just in Case, Please Check Carefully"…Unclaimed Lottery Winnings Exceed 27.8 Billion Won

Unclaimed Amounts for Online Lotteries Including Lotto Reach 22.831 Billion Won, the Highest Recorded

Unclaimed lottery winnings that were not collected even after winning amounted to 62.7 billion KRW last year and about 27.8 billion KRW in the first half of this year.

According to data received by Park Seong-hoon, a member of the People Power Party, from the Ministry of Economy and Finance on the 15th, the scale of unclaimed lottery winnings in the first half of this year was recorded at 27.857 billion KRW.

Lotto (This photo is not directly related to the article.) [Photo by Pixabay]

The largest amount of unclaimed winnings was from online lotteries such as Lotto, totaling 22.831 billion KRW, followed by instant lotteries and other printed lotteries at 2.589 billion KRW, and pension lotteries and other combined lotteries at 2.437 billion KRW.

Looking at the scale of unclaimed lottery winnings over the past five years, it was 59.231 billion KRW in 2020, 51.574 billion KRW in 2021, and 49.245 billion KRW in 2022, before significantly increasing again to 62.71 billion KRW last year.

The metropolitan city/province with the highest Lotto sales in the first half of this year was Gyeonggi (750.9 billion KRW), which has the largest population. A total of 90 first-place winners emerged, with an average winning amount of 2 billion KRW per person. This result is analyzed to be related to the fact that it has the largest population nationwide.

The second place was Seoul (492.4 billion KRW), with 60 first-place winners. This was followed by Incheon with 26 winners, Busan with 23, Gyeongnam with 20, Jeonnam with 17, and Gangwon, Daegu, and Chungbuk each with 14 winners. Additionally, Gyeongbuk had 13 winners, Gwangju and Daejeon each had 12, Jeonbuk had 11, Jeju had 9, Chungnam had 8, Ulsan had 5, Sejong had 2, and the internet had 10 winners.

Meanwhile, according to Donghaeng Lottery, the lottery operator, on the 5th, a winner who won the 1 billion KRW Lotto first prize but did not claim the prize for 11 months finally collected the winnings just before the 1-year payment deadline.

Lotto first prize winnings must be claimed within one year from the start date of payment. The first prize can only be collected at the NongHyup Bank headquarters, and any winnings not claimed within the payment period are fully transferred to the lottery fund according to the Lottery and Lottery Fund Act. These funds are used for various public interest projects such as welfare for low-income vulnerable groups, housing stability, scholarship programs, and cultural and artistic promotion funds.