Over 10,000 First Prize Lottery Winners... But a Payout Is No Longer a "Life-Changer"

Sales Surpassed 6.2 Trillion Won Last Year
812 First-Prize Winners... Average Payout at 2 Billion Won
Actual Amount After Tax Only 1.4 Billion Won

Last year, lottery ticket sales surpassed 6 trillion won for the first time ever, but the average first prize payout remained around 2 billion won, marking the lowest level in history.

People standing in line to buy lottery tickets. Photo by Yonhap News

According to Yonhap News on February 2, lottery ticket sales last year reached 6.2001 trillion won, up 4.6% from the previous year based on data from Donghaeng Lottery, the lottery operator. This is the highest figure since sales began in December 2002.

In contrast, the average first prize payout was 2.06 billion won, the lowest on record except for 2002, when only four draws were held. While the scale of sales has grown, the prize amount per winner has actually decreased.

'Turning Your Life Around' Is a Thing of the Past... First Prize Payouts Fall as Number of Winners Surges

On April 12, 2003 (19th draw), a single first prize winner received 40.72 billion won, which greatly boosted the lottery's popularity. That year, annual sales reached 3.8031 trillion won. However, as concerns over gambling addiction arose, the number of first prize rollover draws was reduced and the price per game was lowered from 2,000 won to 1,000 won. As a result, sales temporarily dropped to the 2 trillion won range before rebounding in subsequent years.

The average first prize payout was 6.17 billion won in 2003 and 4.36 billion won in 2004, but declined sharply thereafter. Even in the 2020s, the downward trend continued, with 2.55 billion won in 2022, 2.37 billion won in 2023, and 2.1 billion won in 2024. In reality, after taxes, the actual amount received for a 2 billion won prize is about 1.4 billion won, making it difficult to "turn your life around" when considering factors like housing prices.

The Lottery Commission explained that the decrease in first prize payouts is actually due to increased popularity. Since a fixed percentage of sales is allocated to prize money, a rise in sales increases the total prize pool. However, as more people participate, the probability of having multiple winners also rises, resulting in lower payouts per winner. In fact, there were 812 first prize winners last year, a significant increase from 763 the previous year.

The Appropriate Prize Amount Is '5.2 Billion Won'... Over 10,000 First Prize Winners to Date

According to a survey conducted last year by the Korea Institute of Public Finance among 5,000 men and women aged 19 to 64, 45.3% of respondents said they were "satisfied" with the first prize payout, while 32.7% were "dissatisfied." Those who were dissatisfied considered 5.22 billion won to be the appropriate prize amount on average.

The draw with the highest number of first prize winners was the 1,128th draw (July 13, 2024), when 63 people won simultaneously, each receiving about 420 million won. The lowest first prize payout occurred in the 546th draw (May 18, 2013), when 30 people won, each receiving 406 million won.

Cumulative sales from the first to the 1,209th draw totaled 85.9456 trillion won. During the same period, there were 10,153 first prize winners and a total of 20.4715 trillion won paid out in prize money. The highest sales for a single draw were recorded in the 1,205th draw (132.67 billion won). Of the 8,768 first prize wins, 65.9% were through automatic selection, 31.3% through manual selection, and 2.8% through semi-automatic selection.