Vietnamese man who buys whole lottery stack wins with all 160 tickets, takes home $1.4M

A man in southern Vietnam has won with all 160 tickets in a lottery stack, taking prizes worth VND39.2 billion (US$1.52 million) before tax.

To Ich Tuyen, owner of the Ngoc Quang lottery agency in Ca Mau, confirmed on Oct. 26 that the agency had sold the stack and paid out the prizes, local media reported.

The stack held 16 tickets bearing 361620, the special-prize number drawn by the Hau Giang Lottery Company, and 144 tickets that each won a VND50 million consolation prize, Tuyen said, as reported by Tien Phong newspaper.

After 10% tax, the man took home about VND35.6 billion, he said.

In Vietnam's southern lottery, a ticket matching the special-prize number pays VND2 billion, while one that differs from it only in the first of its six digits wins a VND50 million consolation prize.

At VND10,000 a ticket, the whole stack cost VND1.6 million.

A street vendor sells lottery tickets in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by VnExpress/Phuong Dong

The winner, who has not been named, regularly buys whole stacks of tickets at the agency, Tuyen said, Thanh Nien newspaper reported. At the customer's request, VND2.6 billion ($100,700) was paid in cash and the rest by bank transfer.

The agency had sold winning tickets many times before, but customers usually won only a few tickets each, he said. This was the first time he had seen a customer win so much.

The man had ordered the stack online and paid in full, then asked the agency to hold all the tickets because he was busy. The agency contacted him on the afternoon of Oct. 24, after the results came out, to tell him he had won.