Pension Lottery 720+

What it is

Pension Lottery 720+ is a Korean lottery with a twist: instead of handing the winner one lump sum, it pays the top prize out as a monthly annuity. The name comes from that structure. First prize runs for 240 monthly installments over 20 years, and the plus sign marks it as the updated version of an older pension lottery that ran in Korea for years before being relaunched in its current form.

The game is run by Donghaeng Lottery, the state-licensed operator that also handles Korea's other national lottery products. It is sold both over the counter and online, and the two channels are treated as separate pools for prize allocation, which matters more than you might expect. Every draw has a fixed number of winning tickets in each prize tier, split between retailer sales and internet sales. For first prize, that means one winning ticket sold at a retailer and one sold online, two in total¹.

The draw itself happens every Thursday at around 7:05 PM and is broadcast by MBC. The exact time can shift slightly depending on the broadcaster's schedule, so if you are watching live, give it a few minutes either way¹.

What makes the game unusual is the payout structure. Most lotteries pay a single lump sum, and winners then have to decide what to do with it. Pension Lottery 720+ removes that decision for the top prizes by paying monthly, on the 20th of each month, for a fixed number of years. The first prize runs for 20 years. Second prize and the bonus prize run for 10 years⁴.

Licenses and regulator

Pension Lottery 720+ is operated by Donghaeng Lottery Co., the company that holds Korea's national lottery mandate. It is not a private operator and it is not licensed in any other jurisdiction. The game exists under Korean lottery law, and the operator publishes its own game rules, prize tables and sales terms on its homepage¹.

That matters for two practical reasons. First, the game is only sold inside South Korea, through Korean retailers and the Korean-language Donghaeng Lottery website. There is no international version, no offshore mirror and no licensed reseller abroad. If you see Pension Lottery 720+ being offered through a site that is not dhlottery.co.kr, it is not the real game.

Second, the prize money is paid by Donghaeng Lottery directly. Annuity prizes, meaning first, second and bonus, are paid out by the company itself rather than through a retailer or a bank counter⁵. Smaller prizes are handled differently, and we cover that below.

Unclaimed prizes do not sit around forever. Any prize not claimed within its deadline reverts to the lottery fund and is used for public interest projects¹. The claim windows are generous but not unlimited, so if you win something, deal with it rather than filing the ticket away.

Where it accepts players

Pension Lottery 720+ is sold in two places: retailers across South Korea, and the internet through the Donghaeng Lottery homepage¹.

At a retailer, you can buy up to KRW 100,000 per person in a single purchase¹. That is a per-transaction cap, not a daily one, so in theory you could buy more by making several trips. In practice most people buy a handful of games at a time.

Online, the cap is KRW 150,000 per person per day, and it applies across products on the site rather than to Pension Lottery 720+ alone¹. You need an account with Donghaeng Lottery to buy online, which means going through the site's sign-up and identity verification.

One restriction worth knowing: mobile purchases are limited. The mobile channel does not offer the full range of what the desktop site does, so if you want to buy Pension Lottery 720+ online, plan on using the website rather than your phone⁶.

There is also a reservation purchase option. If you want to buy into a future draw rather than the current one, you can, and the purchase applies from the next draw onwards. The current draw can only be bought through an immediate purchase¹.

For anyone outside Korea, the practical position is simple. The game is sold in Korea, to people in Korea, in Korean won. There is no legal way to buy a genuine Pension Lottery 720+ ticket from abroad, and no licensed operator sells it internationally.

The legal position by country

Pension Lottery 720+ is a Korean domestic lottery. It is legal to buy and play inside South Korea, at retailers and on the official website, and it is not licensed or sold anywhere else¹.

For visitors and foreign residents in Korea, buying a ticket at a convenience store or lottery shop is straightforward. You do not need to be a citizen, and there is no residency requirement printed on the ticket. You pay KRW 1,000, you get a ticket. The same applies online, though the online shop requires a Donghaeng Lottery account and Korean identity verification, which is where non-residents usually run into trouble.

The trickier question is what happens if you win. Annuity prizes are paid by Donghaeng Lottery directly, and the practical route to receiving them is a Korean bank account. If you are a visitor who wins a large annuity prize and then leaves the country, collecting 20 years of monthly payments becomes a logistical problem rather than a legal one. Smaller prizes, which are paid at retailers or through the online account, are easier to collect on the spot.

Outside Korea, the position is that this game does not exist in any licensed form. Playing offshore casino websites is illegal in some Asian markets and players have been prosecuted, so if a site claims to offer Korean lottery products to players abroad, treat that as a red flag rather than an opportunity.

If you are in Korea and want to compare what else is available, our guide to the lottery in South Korea covers the full picture, and Donghaeng Lottery explains the operator behind this game. For the wider gambling landscape, see Can I Gamble in South Korea?.

Games and payments

Pension Lottery 720+ has one game format. You pick a group number from 1 to 5, or choose all groups, and then a 6-digit number³. That is your entry. Each game costs KRW 1,000¹.

The draw produces a 7-digit first prize number. Your ticket's 6 digits are matched against the last 6 digits of that number, and the group determines which of the five group draws you are playing in. Matching more consecutive digits from the right wins more.

Here is the full prize table:

The overall odds of winning any prize are 1 in 10, and the game returns 75 percent of sales as prizes¹.

A few things about this table are worth spelling out. First prize is a genuine annuity: KRW 7 million every month for 20 years, which the operator states as a total of KRW 1.68 billion². Second prize and the bonus prize pay KRW 1 million a month for 10 years¹. Those three are the only annuity tiers. Everything from third prize down is a one-off cash payment.

There is a way to win second prize more than once in a single draw. If you buy the same serial number across all five groups, you can collect second prize simultaneously on each group, which the operator describes as up to KRW 4 million every month for 10 years². That is a deliberate strategy some regular players use, and it costs five times as much per draw.

The annuity payments land on the 20th of each month. First prize runs for 240 monthly installments over 20 years, starting on the 20th of the month after you claim. Second and bonus prizes run for 120 monthly installments over 10 years, also on the 20th⁴. If the 20th is not a banking day, you are paid on the preceding banking day¹.

Two rules about the annuity are worth knowing before you buy. The right to receive annuity prize money cannot be transferred to a third party or used as collateral while you are alive¹. And if the winner dies, the remaining payments go to a designated beneficiary, or are inherited under the Civil Act if no beneficiary was named¹.

On tax, a 22 percent rate applies to all Pension Lottery 720+ prizes, which the operator notes is lower than the rate on most Korean lottery games². That is deducted before payment, so the monthly figure you receive is the after-tax amount.

Buying is simple. At a retailer, you fill in a slip or ask at the counter, pay KRW 1,000 per game, and take your ticket. Online, you log into your Donghaeng Lottery account, pick your group and number, and pay from your account balance. Sales run as follows¹:

• From Friday to Wednesday, around the clock
• On Thursday, draw day, from midnight to 5 PM
• Then again on Thursday from 10 PM to midnight

The gap between 5 PM and 10 PM is the draw itself and the settlement period around it.

If you buy online, prizes are paid according to the Pension Lottery 720+ sales terms published on the company homepage¹. Annuity prizes are paid by Donghaeng Lottery Co. directly⁵.

Ownership and history

Pension Lottery 720+ is owned and operated by Donghaeng Lottery Co., the Korean state-licensed lottery operator. It is a domestic product with no international arm, no offshore license and no foreign sales channel¹.

The game is the current form of Korea's pension lottery, a product type that has existed in the country for years and was relaunched under the 720+ branding with the annuity structure intact. The core idea has not changed: instead of a single large payment, the top prizes are spread across decades of monthly installments, on the theory that a steady income is more useful to a winner than a lump sum that can be spent quickly.

The operator publishes its game rules, prize tables and sales terms on its homepage, and those documents are the authoritative source for everything on this page¹. The draw is broadcast weekly on MBC, and the results are published through the Donghaeng Lottery site and app.

There is also an exchange voucher product connected to the game. It is an electronic gift certificate that can be exchanged at lottery retailers for Pension Lottery 720+ tickets, designed for corporate marketing and promotions, and it works offline only⁷. If your employer hands out lottery vouchers, that is likely what they are.

For comparison with other games in the region, our guides to Lotto 6/45 and Speetto Instant Lottery cover the other main Korean lottery products, and Sports Toto covers the sports betting side. If you are in Japan rather than Korea, Takarakuji and Sports Lottery toto / BIG / WINNER are the equivalents there.