"Lotto Manipulation? Check It Yourself" ... Public Drawing Event to Be Held

Public Drawing Event Scheduled Around June
To Address 'Manipulation' Allegations

Amid recent controversies over lottery manipulation, the government has decided to open the drawing site to the public.

According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance on the 2nd, the Lottery Commission will hold a public Lotto drawing event in June for citizens who apply to attend. While a small number of ordinary people have previously observed the drawing broadcast site to verify fairness, this will be the first time that a large number of people can participate.

[Photo by Yonhap News]

For the June observation event, the plan is to hold it in a larger venue than the current Lotto drawing location at the Sangam MBC studio. Applications to attend will be accepted through the Lottery Commission’s website and other channels during May and June.

The Lottery Commission appears to have decided on the public event to dispel suspicions after an unusually high number of second-place winners occurred in the 1057th Lotto draw in March, sparking manipulation allegations.

Last year, the average number of second-place Lotto winners was 75.7, but in the 1057th draw, there were 664 second-place winners. In particular, when 103 second-place winners came from a single sales outlet in Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, some netizens responded by saying, "The Lotto broadcast is all rigged."

In response, the Lottery Commission stated that online lottery drawings are broadcast live nationwide, and before the broadcast, the drawing machine’s proper operation and the weight and size of the drawing balls are pre-checked under the supervision of police officers and ordinary observers, making manipulation impossible.

Additionally, the Lottery Commission is known to have commissioned the Korea Information and Communication Technology Association (TTA) to verify the possibility of hacking and manipulation.

Meanwhile, on the 25th, the Lottery Commission held its 158th meeting chaired by Second Vice Minister Choi Sang-dae to review and approve the 2024 lottery issuance plan.

Accordingly, the expected lottery sales amount for 2024 is projected to increase by 548.9 billion KRW (8.1%) from this year to 7.2918 trillion KRW. Also, the lottery revenue used as funding for lottery fund projects is estimated to increase by 228.7 billion KRW from this year to 2.9684 trillion KRW.

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