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Pension Lottery 720+ (Korea): a game guide
Pension Lottery 720+ is built very differently from Lotto 6/45. Instead of choosing six numbers from 45, the ticket carries a single number made of a group (1 to 5) and a six-digit number, and the prize depends on how many digits match the winning number from the right-hand end. The first prize is not a lump sum but KRW 7 million a month for 20 years. This guide uses the operator's official page to explain the structure and the odds, and works out how two figures in its notice, a 75% payout rate and a 60.3% share of sales for prizes, can both hold. It also says why this site's generator and combination calculator do not support the game.
- Operator and market
- Donghaeng Lottery, South Korea verified
- Price
- KRW 1,000 per game verified
- Ticket format
- A group (1 to 5) and a six-digit number: 5,000,000 tickets verified
- First prize
- KRW 7 million a month for 20 years (240 payments) verified
- Second prize and bonus
- KRW 1 million a month for 10 years each verified
- Payment
- Monthly on the 20th from the month after the claim verified
- Draw days and time
- Not confirmed in this guide not verified
- Added to the generator and calculator?
- No: the digit-with-replacement format does not fit the site's pool model computed by LottoFlick
The ticket: 5,000,000 possibilities
According to Donghaeng Lottery, the first prize needs "seven consecutive digits matching the winning number". Seven digits are the group digit plus a six-digit number. There are five groups and 1,000,000 six-digit numbers (000000 to 999999), so there are 5 × 1,000,000 = 5,000,000 distinct tickets, exactly the notice's first-prize odds of 1 in 5,000,000.
Compare Lotto 6/45, where you choose from 8,145,060 unordered combinations. Pension Lottery 720+, going by the notice's distinction between single tickets and sets, appears to be sold as printed numbers (we did not confirm how numbers are selected); digits can repeat, and the order of digits matters. That is why this site's combination calculator (a model of distinct numbers chosen from pools) and number generator do not support the game. The fact that you apparently do not choose the number, so there is nothing to generate, is another reason (not confirmed here).
The distinctive structure: matching digits from the right
The prize tiers are set by consecutive matching digits counted from the right-hand end. One digit matches with probability 1/10, and each extra digit divides the odds by ten. The table gives the operator's prizes and odds and, in the last column, this site's exact calculation.
| Tier | Condition | Prize | Stated odds | Calculated odds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | group and six digits all match | KRW 7 million a month for 20 years | 1 in 5,000,000 | 1 in 5,000,000 |
| 2nd | last six digits match the first-prize number (different group) | KRW 1 million a month for 10 years | 1 in 1,250,000 | 4/5 × 1/1,000,000 = 1 in 1,250,000 |
| Bonus | last six digits match the bonus number | KRW 1 million a month for 10 years | 1 in 1,000,000 | 1 in 1,000,000 |
| 3rd | last five digits match | KRW 1 million | 1 in 111,111 | 0.9 × 1/100,000 |
| 4th | last four digits match | KRW 100,000 | 1 in 11,111 | 0.9 × 1/10,000 |
| 5th | last three digits match | KRW 50,000 | 1 in 1,111 | 0.9 × 1/1,000 |
| 6th | last two digits match | KRW 5,000 | 1 in 111 | 0.9 × 1/100 |
| 7th | last digit matches | KRW 1,000 | 1 in 11 | 0.9 × 1/10 |
For the 3rd to 7th tiers, the next digit to the left must not match for the tier to apply, hence the factor 0.9 (nine chances in ten that it differs). The 2nd prize needs a different group, so 4/5 is applied. All the calculated values equal the stated odds. The overall chance of winning some prize is the chance that the last digit matches, 1 in 10, as the notice says.
75% and 60.3%: why both can hold
The operator's notice contains two numbers. One is "payout rate (return rate): 75% of sales". The other is the allocation of sales: "prizes 60.3%, Lottery Fund 29.2%, retailer commission 6.2%, other operating costs 4.3%". Both refer to prizes yet differ, which at first looks contradictory. The notice does not explain the relation. Calculation reveals the following.
- The expected nominal total is exactly 75.0%. Multiply each prize odds by its nominal prize (1st: 7,000,000 × 240 = KRW 1.68 billion; 2nd and bonus: 1,000,000 × 120 = KRW 120 million, and so on) and the expected prize per KRW 1,000 game is KRW 750, 75.0% of sales. This simply adds up the payments over time.
- There is a discount rate at which present value gives 60.3%. Converting the annuity prizes to the present value of their monthly payments lowers the expected value. Raising the annual discount rate, the expected value equals exactly 60.3% at about 4.1%.
The match is intriguing but not an established fact. We found no document in which the operator says it computed 60.3% as a present value. It is an inference: if 75% is the plain sum of payments and 60.3% corresponds to the annuity's present value (or the reserve to be set aside), both numbers hold together. The 4.1% rate is back-calculated, not a rate the operator used. What it means, though, is clear: for an annuity lottery the return rate differs by nearly 15 percentage points depending on whether it is stated as a nominal sum or a present value. When setting a lump-sum lottery's return (50% for Lotto) beside an annuity lottery's, that distinction must be kept.
This calculation is for single tickets. According to the notice a set adds KRW 4 million a month for 10 years to the first prize, which changes the expected value.
In terms of what the money is worth
The first prize is KRW 1.68 billion nominally but much less in present value: about KRW 1.26 billion at 3% and about KRW 1.06 billion at 5%. A table and calculator are in the lump sum versus annuity present-value calculator. Even the same headline of "KRW 2 billion prize" differs in size between Lotto 6/45's lump sum and the pension lottery's nominal KRW 1.68 billion.
Side by side with Lotto 6/45
| Item | Pension Lottery 720+ | Lotto 6/45 |
|---|---|---|
| Price per game | KRW 1,000 | KRW 1,000 |
| First-prize odds | 1 in 5,000,000 | 1 in 8,145,060 |
| Chance of any prize | 1 in 10 (10%) | about 2.38% |
| How the first prize is paid | KRW 7 million a month for 20 years (annuity) | in one lump sum |
| Stated payout rate | 75% of sales (nominal total) | 50% of sales |
| Payout rate in present value (inferred) | about 60.3% at an assumed 4.1% a year | 50% (the same, being a lump sum) |
Prizes come more often in the pension lottery but most are small ones of KRW 1,000 or KRW 5,000, and the big ones are received over a long time. Lotto has a lower overall chance but pays the first prize at once. To understand how the two differ, look not only at "how much you receive" but at "when you receive it".
Tax and payment
The notice says taxes on prizes are borne by the winner and withheld under the Income Tax Act. Annuity prizes and prizes above KRW 2 million require details on the back of the ticket and a visit to a payment point with an identity document. Payment points listed are Donghaeng Lottery, NH Nonghyup Bank branches and pension-lottery retailers. For the tax treatment of annuity prizes (that the tax minimum is judged on the sum of the instalments was confirmed from the statute, but the statute basis for the over-KRW 300 million part was not) see the lottery prize tax guide.
What we could not verify
- Draw days and times, and the sales cut-off.
- The detailed composition of a set (the notice says only that a set adds KRW 4 million a month for 10 years to the first prize).
- That 60.3% is a present-value figure (the basis of the inference above).
- The statutory tax treatment of annuity prizes above KRW 300 million.
- The claim deadline and what happens to unclaimed prizes.
Scope of this guide
This game is not in the lottery list of this site's number generator, combination calculator or Lottery Explorer. It appears not to be a game where you choose the numbers, so there is nothing to generate, and its digits can repeat, so it cannot be expressed in the "pool of distinct numbers" model. The table in this guide gives the exact odds instead. A first prize at 1 in 5,000,000 is about 1.6 times easier than Lotto 6/45 (1 in 8,145,060), but this game's average return is lower in present-value terms and its prize structure is different. For any lottery the expected value is below the amount spent, the chance is the same whatever you choose, and this guide neither predicts results nor recommends buying. For responsible play see here.
LottoFlick is independent and not an official lottery operator. Numbers are random and cannot be predicted.
Sources and verification
- Donghaeng Lottery, Pension Lottery 720+ introduction: prize table with odds, 1,000 won per game, payment on the 20th, sales allocation 60.3 / 29.2 / 6.2 / 4.3, payout rate 75% — verified
- LottoFlick calculation: exact prize odds and the nominal payout — computed by LottoFlick
- South Korea lottery prize tax guide (pension prizes are covered only partly there) — partly verified · the statute basis for the pension-lottery treatment is not confirmed