Last year, the amount of unclaimed lottery winnings exceeded 50 billion won. This included the unclaimed amount of the first-prize lotto winner (1.5 billion won).
According to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance on the 8th, the unclaimed winnings from online lottery (lotto) and combination lottery amounted to 52.485 billion won last year. Looking at the situation over the past five years, unclaimed winnings decreased from 59.231 billion won in 2020 to 51.574 billion won in 2021, and 49.245 billion won in 2022, before rebounding to 62.71 billion won in 2023. However, it decreased again last year.
A lottery committee official said, “As a result of continuously strengthening publicity regarding the receipt of winnings, the unpaid amount decreased compared to a year ago.”
By type of lottery, the unclaimed winnings for lotto were the highest at 42.6 billion won, followed by printed lottery at 6.214 billion won and combination lottery at 3.671 billion won.
There was also one case of an unclaimed first-prize lotto winning of which the winner did not collect the prize. The winning amount was 1.535 billion won. Additionally, there were 31 unclaimed second-prize winnings (totaling 1.705 billion won), 1,476 third-prize winnings (totaling 2.137 billion won), 131,822 fourth-prize winnings (totaling 6.591 billion won), and 6,126,226 fifth-prize winnings (totaling 30.631 billion won).
Meanwhile, according to the lottery agent DONGHAE LOTTERY, as of the 3rd of this month, there are a total of 9 cases of unclaimed high-value (1st and 2nd prizes) lotto winnings that will mature within 2 months. Among these, 4 cases are for 1st prize and 5 cases are for 2nd prize.
Lotteries like lotto will expire if the winnings are not claimed within one year from the date of payment commencement, while instant lotteries will expire if not claimed within one year from the end of the sales period. The expiration date for the 1,102nd draw held on January 13 last year is the 14th, and the expiration date for the 1,108th draw held on February 24 last year is the 25th of next month.