The South African National Lottery drew an unusual set of numbers, and 20 people won the first prize (profile photo)
The South African National Lottery drew an unusual set of numbers, and 20 people won the first prize, triggering allegations of fraud.
The Powerball lottery on Tuesday (November 1st) showed 5 consecutive numbers of 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. The Powerball itself, as you might have guessed it-is 10.
Lottery organizers said that this sequence was not unexpected, but some people claimed it was a scam. Currently, the investigation is ongoing.
It is extremely rare for multiple winners to share the jackpot.
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Organizers said that 20 people bought the winning lottery ticket, each winning 5.7 million rand (370,000 US dollars, 2.43 million yuan).
Another 79 lottery buyers missed the powerball because they guessed the order from 5 to 9 and each won 6,283 rand.
The odds of winning the South African Powerball lottery are one in 42,375,200. People need to select 5 balls from 50 balls to combine, plus an extra power ball selected from 20 balls.
Skip Twitter posts, 1
Congratulations to 20 new multimillionaires who each won over R5 million on the PowerBall jackpot! 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ???? ???? What will your winning numbers be? Check your tickets now to see if you’re a winner #FestiveYamaMillions pic.twitter.com/7DYpDjTL4R
— #PhandaPushaPlay (@sa_lottery) December 2, 2020
End of Twitter post, 1
In the live TV broadcast on Tuesday, the probability of the numbers drawn is the same as any other combination. However, there are very few cases of multiple winners in this game, and this time may be related to this special number combination.
“Congratulations to the 20 Powerball winners tonight,” lottery operator Ithuba wrote on Twitter. “These numbers may be unexpected, but we have seen many players choose to play this combination.”
On Wednesday (December 2), many people shared their thoughts on social media.
Twitter user “Mr Tee” claimed that this was a “scam”, and another user “Lungaz” said, “This is absolutely impossible to be a coincidence.”
Others have called for an investigation into Tuesday’s lottery winning results. The South African National Lottery Commission (NLC), the lottery regulator, said the results of the lottery were unprecedented and the agency will investigate.
Ndivhuho Mafela, a spokesman for the South African National Lottery Commission, said the agency will review the incident and make the findings public.