national

Search on for owner of 2,000 lottery tickets left at Tochigi City Hall

21 Comments

Police are looking for the benevolent owner of 2,000 lottery tickets that were presumably left intentionally at the Tochigi City Hall in Tochigi Prefecture.

The tickets, placed in paper bags, were found inside the elevator of the administrative building’s parking lot at around noon on Monday by a woman. A handwritten note reading “If any of these tickets win a prize in the lottery, please use the money to help victims of storm disasters,” addressed to the Tochigi mayor, was also enclosed, Fuji TV reported.

The tickets, worth 600,000 yen, are for the famous year-end jumbo lottery draw. The top prize is 500 million yen.

Though the results of the draw will be announced on Dec 31, according to Japanese regulations, the tickets are treated as lost items and thereby cannot be used by a second party.

The police are currently looking to identify the owner and return his potential fortune.

© Japan Today

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

21 Comments
Login to comment

" buying every available ticket in a lottery is one way to guarantee that you will lose money "

Nobody can buy every ticket for the year-end jumbo lottery because... get ready... I bought the ticket that will win 500 million yen!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

who ever must have bought those tickets is a brave person,as you can see,he or she has a good intention of the purpose of the tickets.i think he or she don't want his identity to be made known,that is why he or she did what is best known to him.why searching for this person for christ sake?not a criminal for no reason.this person should be left alone.if eventually those 2000tickets bought and one at of it happen to be the lucky winner,then such money should be used as it was directed. i think the coming year 2016 ,many people may have a change of heart in helping the less priviledge in the society.next time i will have prefer that such money should be given to the less priviledge or victims of disasters through the municipal government without your identity disclose. in all,Bravo good humanitarian.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

A gesture with good intentions but pretty dumb.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The chances of a winning ticket are still pretty remote.

A nice gesture but a 600,000-yen guaranteed donation may have been more useful.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

But this doesn't necessarily insert you into the private contract between the buyer and the lottery since you were never a party to the agreement. You are just a third party with no contractual rights who owns a colourful piece of paper.

But the lottery organization doesn't know who bought the tickets. So if the person who found them, gets them after 6 months, he/she simply presents them to the bank and voila, and completes their part of the contract by presenting the "colourful piece of paper" and can thereby expect the lottery to uphold their end of the contract.

Anyway, if the kind person who bought these tickets really wanted to make sure it happened, he or she could have checked the tickets next week and then donated the money, should he have a winning ticket.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

How sad when a pure and harmless act of kindness is hindered by rules.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

@luca, your imagination is amusingly wild. If that's the case, nobody would ever pick it up.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Why? Japan does not have laser barcode reader to scan on tickets? Being able to read the barcode on the ticket will help you determine if the ticket is a winner. The lottery terminal, after reading the bar code, sends the decoded number to the central computer. The central computer maintains a list of winning bar code numbers.

Why? Why what? Lottery tickets have separate serial numbers printed on the bottom center left, and those are also used to identify where they were sent for sale as well. The winning numbers are only known after the draw.

http://www.officiallyjd.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/20151206_hamasakiayumi_13.jpg

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Right. Imagine if you found a speeding ticket and handed it in.... Yours to pay after six months!

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

@Yubaru & Strangerland

I'm not an expert on Japanese lotteries but I think both of you are probably correct.

When you buy a lottery ticket two seperate things are exchanged: 1) The physically paper ticket 2) A contract between the buyer and the lottery organiser to pay out the jackpot if the buyer presents the winning ticket.

As the finder of the physical paper ticket, you can probably become the new legal owner of the paper if nobody claims it within 6 months (or whatever the Civil Code say) just like with any other personal property.

But this doesn't necessarily insert you into the private contract between the buyer and the lottery since you were never a party to the agreement. You are just a third party with no contractual rights who owns a colourful piece of paper.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I'm concerned that would-be finder(s) would come forward to get any windfall profits. :‑(

0 ( +0 / -0 )

“If any of these tickets win a prize in the lottery, please use the money to help victims of storm disasters,”

Why to relegate such a noble task to others? anyway, money gone, throw these tickets in the trash and pray for govt help to victims of storm disasters.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@Edwardor60

They still have to determine the winning tickets. You cannot assume.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

If they are treated as lost, and no one claims them within I think it is 6 months, the person who found the items could claim them for their own. So I do not get where the idea comes from that a "second party" can not use them.

The second party rule may be a lottery rule, which would be different from the rule/law you are referring to.

I have no idea if that's the case, but it's just a possibility I'm throwing out there.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

YubaruDEC. 29, 2015 - 04:11PM JST Shouldn't be all that hard to find the person who purchased the tickets really. The cops could check the numbers and find the location of where they were sold and odds are there is a camera there which could identify the person.

Why? Japan does not have laser barcode reader to scan on tickets? Being able to read the barcode on the ticket will help you determine if the ticket is a winner. The lottery terminal, after reading the bar code, sends the decoded number to the central computer. The central computer maintains a list of winning bar code numbers.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Shouldn't be all that hard to find the person who purchased the tickets really. The cops could check the numbers and find the location of where they were sold and odds are there is a camera there which could identify the person.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Why would anyone buy 2000 tickets? As Adam Smith pointed out way back in the 18th century; buying every available ticket in a lottery is one way to guarantee that you will lose money (even though you would 'win' the lottery). So every additional ticket you buy simply brings you a step closer to this insane strategy.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Though the results of the draw will be announced on Dec 31, according to Japanese regulations, the tickets are treated as lost items and thereby cannot be used by a second party.

If they are treated as lost, and no one claims them within I think it is 6 months, the person who found the items could claim them for their own. So I do not get where the idea comes from that a "second party" can not use them.

If the owner does come to collect them,the person who found them can receive 10% of the value of the items as well.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

I knew I left them somewhere....

8 ( +9 / -1 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites