Store Owner Who Suddenly Changed Tune After Lottery Ticket Bought on Behalf Won 2 Billion Won: "Photo Sent by Mistake"

First Prize Winner Says "It's Not Yours" and Denies Claim
Court Sides with Customer but No Money Left

A lottery ticket seller in China who bought a lottery ticket on behalf of a regular customer and won first prize lost a lawsuit. However, the customer reportedly has not received a single penny of the tens of billions of won in lottery winnings for years despite winning the lawsuit.

On the 31st of last month, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post (SCMP) introduced the story of Mr. Yao from Xi'an City, Shanxi Province, northern China. He regularly purchased lottery tickets and on July 17, 2019, sent 20 yuan (about 4,000 won) to Wang, the owner of his regular lottery shop, asking him to buy two lottery tickets on his behalf.

The photo is not related to the specific content of the article. Pixabay

Wang randomly bought two lottery tickets and even sent photos of the tickets to Yao for verification. However, one of the two tickets Wang bought on Yao’s behalf unexpectedly won a prize of 10 million yuan (about 2 billion won). Yao’s joy was soon shattered. When he went to Wang to receive the physical ticket he had seen in the photo, he was told a shocking story. Wang claimed, "The winning ticket was bought by someone else, but I mistakenly sent you the photo." Wang then offered 150,000 yuan (about 30 million won) as compensation for mental distress and demanded that Yao delete all conversation records on his phone. Yao, feeling partly responsible for not buying the ticket himself, accepted this proposal.

The problem did not end there. Two months later, Yao discovered that the person who received the huge lottery winnings was Wang’s cousin, Gao. Two months after the lottery win, in September 2019, Gao collected 8 million yuan (about 1.6 billion won) after tax deduction from the Shanxi Lottery Management Center. Enraged by this, Yao filed a civil lawsuit against Wang, claiming that he was the rightful owner of the winning ticket, not Gao. Eventually, after the lawsuit, the Xi'an People's Court ruled in October 2021 that "Gao must return the first prize lottery winnings to Yao" and "Wang must also bear joint responsibility for the winnings."

Gao appealed the decision, but in July, the Xi'an Intermediate People's Court dismissed the appeal. The decisive reason was the lack of evidence supporting Gao’s claim that he purchased the lottery ticket. However, despite winning twice, Yao has not received any of the winnings because Gao’s bank account has no balance. Moreover, Gao’s house was put up for auction but has not yet been sold.

Yao said, "Although I won the lawsuit, I am not entirely happy," and appealed, "I have spent hundreds of thousands of yuan on lawyer fees. I cannot help but worry about my livelihood." Yao’s lawyer plans to request the court to investigate Gao’s use of the lottery winnings.