Curse of lotto: turning friends into enemies

Due to increasing numbers of people who buy lotto tickets hoping to change their life with six numbers, last year’s lotto sales were 3.5 trillion won (2.92 billion U.S. dollars), the highest ever. Has lotto changed their lives? It does not seem to have done that, according to court rulings.

Kim and Lee, who worked together in a restaurant, won the top lotto prize but lost their friendship. According to the Jeonju District Court, the two’s close friendship came to an end as Lee won the first prize with one of the two tickets that Kim gave Lee. Kim bought six and gave Lee two. Of 1.28 billion won (1.06 million dollars), the total prize money he received after tax, Lee gave Kim 100 million won (83,507 dollars) to thank him. However, Kim demanded for half the total money, and Lee sued Kim to get the 100 million won back. The court reached a verdict in Lee’s favor, stating that Kim does not need to return the 100 million won.

The same happened to four temporary workers whose job is loading cargoes on ships in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province. In 2014, Park paid for the meals that the four ate and collected the money from the three later. Park gave Jang 10,000 won (8.35 dollars) from the collected money and had him buy lotto tickets, one of which was the jackpot. As Park gave Jang half of the prize money (1.07 billion won or 893,528 dollars), one of the other two filed a lawsuit against them claiming that the prize money should be divided into four, but the Daegu District Court did not accept his claim.

One married couple got divorced because they squandered the prize money. In May 2011, Han bought four lotto tickets and gave one to her husband and one to her son. They checked the result together and found out the one given to the husband won the first prize, but happiness did not last long. The wife filed a suit for divorce, saying, “After winning the lotto, he became over-extravagant, buying things such as car and boat.” The husband filed a counter-suit, saying that she wasted too much money. Consequently, the Incheon District Court allowed the divorce and ruled that the prize money is to be shared between the couple, and subject to division.

Many people ruined their lives due to their addiction to lotto. Lee, an insurance company worker, was in insolvency, but he started buying lotto tickets worth millions of won from May 2013. From July to September in the same year, he borrowed 4.3 million won (3,590 dollars) from his girlfriend, by saying, “My parents need money to buy some land.” In October, he borrowed 5.3 million won (4,525 dollars) from a loan shark but failed to pay it back. As a result, he was sent to the court on fraud charges. The Daegu District Court fined Lee 5 million won (4,175 dollars) on Jan. 22.

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