North Korea’s Samhung Electronic Wallet smartphone app started giving people access to lottery tickets on mobile with jackpots in the tens of millions of North Korean won. People who use the app can purchase number-based lottery tickets similar to South Korea’s “Lotto.” The app also offers sports betting options, such as “Sports Toto,” where participants predict the outcomes of international sports matches. Daily NK checked the app’s database and found these options, noting that lottery results often appear in the app. 

Inside the lottery, there are “Sports Event Lottery” and “Sports Number Lottery,” and the highest prizes come from the Sports Event Lottery. A record dated March 1, 2023, in the app’s database, said: “In the 16th Sports Event Lottery, done with many hopes and interest from many Sports Lottery fans, user [mobile identification number 1323622531], who bought one ticket, got first prize: 46,697,268 won.” Pyongyang’s market exchange rate at the moment ($1 = 8,280 won) made this prize close to $5,640. 

Another record from March 17, 2023, showed someone bought 15 tickets and also won the top prize. Prize money is given to winners through their Jonsong Card, which is a debit card with a cash account, or it goes into the Samhung e-wallet. Daily NK does not have details yet on how the lottery works fully or what part of the ticket money the state keeps.

Betting On Global Sports despite Information Controls

The “Sports Number Lottery” works much like South Korea’s “Lotto”; the payout matches how many digits of the ticket are correct. The app’s database states that to win the first prize, the last five digits of a seven-digit ticket must be exact. As an example, if a person’s ticket is number 2345678 and the winning number is 45678, then the jackpot becomes theirs.

The app does not say what players get for lower matches, but it likely gives lesser prizes for four and three digits as well. Players can pick numbers by themselves or let the machine pick. Daily NK saw that a “Football Lottery” feature exists, working a lot like South Korea’s “Sports Toto,” letting people bet on real football games. A notice sent on February 29, 2023, called it “a regular event for football matches” and users can bet on “wins, combined wins and goals, Q&As, odds and rankings.”

Gamblers have the option to put bets on matches in North Korea’s own league, and on big global matches like the World Cup, with options for famous leagues such as England’s Premier League and Spain’s La Liga. This shows a contradiction: officials in North Korea let people bet on international sports matches but block outside information from coming into the country.