South Korea to allow online lottery purchase by 2018

South Korean government has announced their intention to allow its citizens to buy the country's state lottery tickets online by the end of 2018.

According to reports in the Korea Times newspaper, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance have greenlit proposals that would see a 5% cap on online sales and a limit on the amount of tickets that players can buy online.

Individuals wishing to purchase tickets online will also be subject to a confirmation process designed to check whether the purchaser is an adult.

Existing gaming operators in the country would also be able to include this on their respective websites.

Lotto is extremely popular in South Korea since being introduced in 2002, with recent ticket sales topping 3.55 billion tickets. According to figures recently published by the Korea Lottery Commission, this is an increase of 9% from the previous period and generated over $3.04bn in 2016.

Each ticket costs 1,000 Korean won (just under $1) with winners receiving a share of 60% of the total prize fund. The remaining 40% is used to fund social programs all across South Korea.

A Ministry of Strategy and Finance survey published in 2015 showed that more than half (56.5%) of South Korea's residents bought a lottery ticket at least once.