Government seeks public opinion on potential Lotto prize increase

A Seoul lottery shop clerk holds up Lotto tickets. (The Korea Herald)

The South Korean government will look into ways to address issues regarding the national lottery, following the outcry over the relatively small jackpot and large numbers of first-place winners.

The Korea Lottery Commission, under the Finance Ministry, announced Tuesday that it has posted a survey titled, “What are your thoughts on changing the first-place prize for the Lotto?” on the public forum run by the Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission.

Questions in the survey include what people consider to be an appropriate first-place prize amount and number of winners.

The survey follows remarks made by Finance Minister Choi Sang-mook in May, where he acknowledged the calls for an increase in Lotto payouts and said it was “an issue worth gathering public opinions on.”

The commission will gather opinions through Oct. 25 and then decide whether to raise the prize money. If public opinion strongly favors an increase, potential changes could include raising the ticket price or changing the game format.

There have been consistent calls for the need to up the winnings, with some claiming that even hitting the jackpot may not be enough to buy a home amid sky-high housing prices.

In July, a total of 63 people won the first prize in Lotto, the highest-ever number of winners in its history. This meant the winners had to split the winnings, and with a 33 percent tax imposed, each took home around 314.3 million won ($235,495).

The jackpot is considered very low compared to the average in other countries. According to the lottery commission, 646 people won the jackpot last year, claiming an average of 2.1 billion won per person.

As a way to increase the payout, the government is considering several options, such as raising the game fee or reducing the odds of winning.

The Korea Institute of Public Finance has proposed raising the ticket price from the current 1,000 won to 2,000 won per game as a solution to increase the prize pool.

Another option is to change the game format to lower the odds of winning. Currently, Lotto requires players to select six numbers from 1 to 45. This could be changed to increasing the selection range to 1 to 60 or 1 to 70.

According to an analysis by Seoul National University’s Statistical Research Institute, if the current system is expanded to choosing six numbers from 1 to 70, the odds of winning first place would drop from 1 in 8.1 million to 1 in 131.1 million, making it 16 times harder to win.

By Ahn Sung-mi(sahn@heraldcorp.com)