Double lottery win reignites South Korea’s conspiracy fever

A routine lottery draw in South Korea opened gates for conspiracy theorists after two jackpot-winning tickets were found to have been purchased from the same store. Netizens have spewed claims of fraud and government manipulation, owing to how meager the odds are of the double lottery win happening.

Last Saturday, Donghaeng Lotto announced the results of its 1,161st draw, which showed that 16 ticket holders would share the jackpot. According to local news outlet Maeil Business, each winner is set to receive nearly 1.8 billion won (US$1.23 million). 

But the revelation that two winning tickets came from the same shop in Siheung, a city 32 kilometers southwest of Seoul, enraged the lottery’s participants, who took to social media to query if the win was fair at all. 

It is not unheard of for multiple winning tickets to come from a single location, but the odds that a lottery’s automatic number-selection system produces two jackpot winners from the same store, are next to impossible; a one in eight million chance.

Online outrage and fraud allegations

Seconds after the announcement was made, netizens went on social media and online forums with full-on doubt about the legitimacy of the draw. On BobaeDream, one of South Korea’s most used online bulletin boards, an anonymous post demanding the government’s transparency on the matter gained over 99,500 views.

“Does this make sense mathematically and probabilistically?” the user, who identified themselves as a music director, noted. “It’s been a long time since there were no winners, and there are dozens of winners in one round.”

Several users on social media, cited by the South China Morning Post, accused authorities of manipulating the results because they extended the time gap between announcing the winning numbers and publishing the winners’ list. The naysayer alleged that the delay might have allowed for fraudulent insertions of winning tickets after the draw.

“The government must investigate and explain whether there was any computer manipulation,” one angered lottery participant surmised.

In response, South Korean authorities dismissed the fraud allegations, coining any attempts to doctor lottery results as “impossible.” A government official stated that the draw is broadcast live nationwide every Saturday at 8:45 p.m. Before the broadcast, police officers and members of the public inspect the lottery balls and verify the proper functioning of the lottery machine.

According to The Seoul Economic Daily, the Ministry of Economy and Finance explained that all sales terminals at retail locations are automatically disconnected from the server 35 minutes before the draw. 

“Rigging the results would require hacking into four different systems, falsifying information, and producing a legitimate ticket, all within an extremely short window of time,” said the ministry’s spokesperson.

This is not the first time South Korea has faced lottery-related conspiracy theories. In 2023, an acute uptick in first-prize winners was also accompanied by similar allegations, that led to a government-backed investigation by Seoul National University. The study concluded that the system was secure and that multiple winners, while rare, were statistically possible.

Crackdown on illegal gambling continues

On Monday, South Korea’s Suwon District Court sentenced several individuals involved in running an illicit online sports betting website worth about $61 million.

The court, following standard practice in South Korea, did not disclose the names of the convicted individuals, but sources say one of the perpetrators behind the operation received a six-month prison sentence and was ordered to forfeit 200 million won (approximately $140,000). Four accomplices were given prison sentences ranging from one year to two years and two months.

“Considering that they either directly established the gambling site or were deeply involved in its operation from the beginning and gained substantial criminal proceeds, severe punishment is inevitable,” said the court in the ruling, as translated by a local media outlet.

Investigators also discovered that the illegal betting operation had multiple website proxies, but it is unknown if the gambling platform used the sites to bypass geo-restrictions or if they were separate ventures.

Cryptopolitan Academy: Want to grow your money in 2025? Learn how to do it with DeFi in our upcoming webclass. Save Your Spot