Lottery prizes in South Korea will be automatically deposited from August 18
A first-of-its-kind system that guarantees the automatic deposit of lottery winnings, even if the player forgets to redeem them, is being implemented. The new feature allows physical tickets to be registered in a payment application and receive notifications about prizes.
The measure was officially approved by the Lotteries Committee of the Ministry of Planning and Budget at its 191st plenary meeting, with the inclusion of new guidelines on the management and sale of lotteries.
This new system developed by the Lotteries Committee will allow buyers of physical tickets, purchased at points of sale, to register them in the PAYCO payment application. This way, it will be possible to receive alerts about prizes and have unredeemed amounts automatically deposited until the payment deadline, with the complete operation starting on August 18th.
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Protection against forgotten prizes
Despite the convenience of electronic registration, the prize payment process continues to prioritize the physical ticket. For this reason, users need to keep their printed tickets carefully until the day before the prize expires to avoid any loss.
Before this change was implemented, paper tickets purchased in physical stores did not offer the same level of identity verification as purchases made online. As a result, prizes forgotten by winners returned to the lottery fund after the limitation period, which is one year from the start date of payment.
In 2025, the total unclaimed lottery prizes reached 58.1 billion won, with the majority corresponding to 4th place (50,000 won) and 5th place (5,000 won). This significant amount highlights the need for a more efficient mechanism to ensure that the amounts reach their rightful winners.
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New tools to drive sales and awareness
To make ticket purchasing more accessible, real-time business information from around 9,500 Lottery dealers across the country will be made available on mapping platforms such as Naver Maps and Kakao Maps.
Furthermore, to strengthen sales among resellers, a pilot program of corporate promotional vouchers for the Social Security Lottery will be launched. These vouchers will be capped at 5,000 won and will be exclusively targeted for use by young people.
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Plans are also underway to transform retail outlets into active Lottery Fund promotion centers. The initiative includes publicizing the fund’s local projects through banners, special envelopes for tickets and screens with QR codes, aiming to increase public awareness.
