64 Trillion to 1 Double Jackpot Win Shakes Faith in South Korea Lottery

The emergence of two winning jackpot lottery tickets from the same retail location has sparked conversations in South Korea. 

The March 1 drawing of the national Donghaeng Lottery resulted in 16 jackpot-winning tickets, with two being produced by the same machine. The ticket numbers were allegedly selected randomly by the machine in a modest, inconspicuous lottery shop in Siheung, Gyeonggi Province. 

The probability of accurately selecting all six numbers in the South Korean Lottery is 8 million to 1. The chances of it occurring a second time from the same machine for the identical draw are roughly 64 trillion to 1. 

 

Error in the Framework? 

This increases the likelihood that the double jackpot was caused by a malfunction in the machine’s random number generator – or something more concerning – instead of the lottery's official explanation, which claims it was just an extraordinary coincidence. 

South Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance, responsible for the national lottery, rejected the notion of tampering. 

The ministry highlighted that sales terminals in retail outlets are automatically detached from the server 35 minutes prior to the draw, rendering post-draw ticket sales “impossible.” 

Additionally, if a person had discovered a method to exploit the system, why create two tickets when one would secure the same portion of the prize pool without increasing suspicion? 

Though 1 in 64 trillion appears improbable, lotteries occur frequently worldwide, and every time, millions of tickets are purchased. After numerous years and countless draws, uncommon occurrences will inevitably take place at some point. 

 

Conspiracy Theories 

Nonetheless, conspiracy theories are circulating on social media, driven by the reality that South Korean winners are not publicly named, unlike their counterparts in other nations, such as the US.

"The government must investigate and explain whether there was any computer manipulation to add first-prize winners after the numbers were drawn,” read one viral post.

Users of social media are demanding increased transparency, urging the lottery to reveal the exact times and places where winning tickets were bought. 

 

63 Victors 

This isn't the initial occasion that South Koreans have had reasons to doubt the integrity of their lottery. In July 2024, a record 63 individuals won the top prize, leading the ministry to organize a “lottery day” to showcase the system's fairness to the public. 

Donghang Lottery Executive Director Im Cho-soon proposed that the apparently improbable count of winners actually mirrored trends in favored number combinations among participants. For example, he stated that numerous South Koreans prefer linear arrangements on their tickets.