On the afternoon of 15/7, Vietnam Lottery Company (Vietlott) held a ceremony to award two customers who won the top prize of the Lotto 5/35 product. Both winners, Do Quoc Dung from Dong Nai and Nguyen Thanh Tung, publicly revealed their identities. Mr. Dung won nearly 10 billion VND, while Mr. Tung won nearly 6.4 billion VND.

Since commencing operations in 2016, Vietlott has seen only a few jackpot winners choose to reveal their faces at award ceremonies. Most winners opt to wear masks to maintain their privacy.

Do Quoc Dung (second from right) receives his 9.9 billion VND prize and Nguyen Thanh Tung (second from left) receives his 6.38 billion VND prize on the afternoon of 15/7 in Hanoi. Photo: Anh Tu

Do Quoc Dung (second from right) receives his 9.9 billion VND prize and Nguyen Thanh Tung (second from left) receives his 6.38 billion VND prize on the afternoon of 15/7 in Hanoi. Photo: Anh Tu

After deducting personal income tax, Mr. Dung received over 8.9 billion VND, while Mr. Tung received nearly 5.75 billion VND. Both winners donated 100 million VND each to charity.

Mr. Tung purchased his winning ticket during a break while working overtime. He had previously only won a maximum of 30,000 VND. Therefore, when a Vietlott employee called to inform him of his billion-VND win, he initially thought it was a scam call from overseas. He only believed he had won after receiving a notification of the prize money being deposited into his bank account.

Mr. Dung called Vietlott's hotline to confirm his win after receiving the winning notification. He expressed his gratitude for the nearly 10 billion VND prize and said he would "carefully consider how to use the winnings wisely".

Lotto 5/35 is the 7th product launched by Vietlott, introduced at the end of June. Its jackpot starts at 6 billion VND and drawings are held twice a day. The Ministry of Finance has set Vietlott a revenue target of 8,750 billion VND (including tax), pre-tax profit of 305 billion VND, and budget contribution of 2,023 billion VND for this year. The expected revenue from terminal sales is 4,440 billion VND, and from phone sales is 4,262 billion VND. The remaining revenue comes from financial activities.

A Vietlott representative stated that in the first 5 months of the year, the company recorded a revenue of 3,590 billion VND, achieving 41% of its target. The company paid out over 1,902 billion VND in prizes and contributed over 1,000 billion VND to the state budget. Vietlott's distribution network currently has 6,624 terminals for direct ticket sales and over 3 million registered accounts for online lottery participation.

Anh Tu