50 Lotto First-Prize Winners 'Manipulation Suspicion'... Government: "No Possibility of Manipulation, Coincidental Result"

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Kim Hyewon] Last week, when the number of first-prize Lotto winners reached a record high of 50, some raised suspicions of manipulation, prompting the Ministry of Economy and Finance to issue a clarification.

On the 14th, the Ministry stated, "The occurrence of multiple first-prize winners in the 1019th Lotto draw was the result of a combination of buyer-preferred numbers being randomly drawn."

The Ministry explained, "The Lotto draw is broadcast live nationwide, and before the broadcast, the weight and size of the drawing balls and the proper operation of the drawing machine are inspected under the supervision of police officers and civilian observers," adding, "There is no possibility of manipulation." They also said, "We plan to continue managing the drawing process fairly and transparently."

In the 1019th Lotto draw held on the 11th, there were as many as 50 first-prize winners, the highest since Lotto was first issued in December 2002. The first-prize amount per game was 438,565,000 KRW.

Among the 50 first-prize winners last week, 42 were manual selections, the largest number, followed by 6 automatic and 2 semi-automatic. Forty-four tickets were sold at offline retail stores, and 6 were sold online.

As multiple winners emerged, some speculated that the draw numbers might have been manipulated.

The Ministry explained, "The probability of selecting a combination of 6 numbers out of 45 is fixed at 1 in 8.14 million," adding, "Considering the sales volume per draw (about 100 million tickets), it is typical for around 12 first-prize winners to occur, but in reality, the number of winners can be higher or lower."

While it is generally expected that about 12 first-prize winners occur if buyers select number combinations evenly, in reality, certain number combinations preferred by buyers cause variations in the number of winners.

In the case of the 1019th draw, the most sold number combination was purchased by about 16,000 people. Combinations that resulted in more than 50 winners were sold over 10,000 times.

The largest Lotto jackpot in history was 40.7 billion KRW on April 12, 2003 (19th draw), with a single winner.

The smallest jackpot was 409.54 million KRW on May 18, 2013 (546th draw), when there were 30 winners.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.