hankyoreh

Samsung Plaza department store in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province, held an event to give away Italian luxury cars priced at 280 million won (US$300,000) each. Imagine the store's surprise when 444 lucky individuals came forward with winning tickets.

Samsung Plaza gave raffle tickets to 39,000 customers on November 1-12, and it drew the winning numbers on November 14. There were 26 hidden numbers on the tickets, and players could choose nine spaces to scratch and uncover their entry numbers.

Persons whose nine numbers corresponded with the winning numbers were eligible to claim their Ferrari, according to the store's original pamphlet on the event.

While the probability of success was supposed to be very low, so far up to 444 persons have come forth with winning tickets, or one in 87 entrants.

The department store suspects that many scratched off their tickets after the winning numbers were drawn, somehow figuring out which numbers were hidden on the cards. An official with the department store said that it is "investigating as to whether there is a way to see through the hidden numbers written on the tickets, but we cannot yet figure out whether it is possible."

Samsung Plaza is now trying to figure out if it has to present 444 Ferraris to winning ticket holders. According to the event's promotional brochures, all the winners will receive the car. But according to writing on the lottery tickets, if there are more than three winners at first, a runoff raffle will be held to determine the final winners.

Law experts say Samsung may be off the hook, as the writing on the tickets is more binding than the content of the brochures, which were written to attract more participants to the event.

Samsung Plaza said it would choose three final winners on December 6. However, controversy continues between the hundreds of would-be winners and the department store.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]