hankyoreh

A heavily-indebted businessman will offer a six-story building worth 14 billion won (US$15.2 million) as the grand prize in an online quiz tournament to take place this fall. The tournament is open to anyone who answers questions in the simple yes-or-no quiz, after paying 10,000 won in participation fees.

The businessman, 46, known only by his last name Park, is a hotel owner in Daegu and reportedly bought the building last September. Soon after, he began remodeling in order to convert it into a hospital for senior citizens. Though Park had borrowed 4 billion won in bank loans to complete the renovations, he still had to resort to borrowing money from loan sharks, a sum which amounted to 700 million won. But the remodeling efforts came to a halt when he was declared bankrupt last month.

With applications underway, the three-month tournament will kick off in September. Ryu Chang-uk, 37, who is organizing the event, said, “We can’t lose the building to loan sharks at such dirt-cheap prices. The event was designed to recoup the value of the building.”

Ryu continued, “With around 10 billion won to be raised, we will pay off our debts and the rest will go to the winner,” adding that there were likely to be at least 600,000 people participating in the tournament. “If not, we will refund the participation fees and give up on the idea,” he said.

The event is modeled after a similar one in Britain in which a 1.2 billion won mansion was put up as the prize. Through the competition, the organizer reportedly earned 2.2 billion won.

But many doubt that the organizer of the Korean tournament will deliver on his promise to refund all participation fees if the competition is cancelled. There has also been suspicion over whether the building will really be awarded to the winner and some people worry that the tournament might run counter to existing laws.

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