The ticket has torn edges
According to Nguyen Thi, 53, she bought two lottery tickets issued by the Thua Thien-Hue Lottery Company on the morning of October 14. The same afternoon, she found out that one of the tickets had won the highest prize of VND2 billion. However, the tickets kept in her coat's pocket were wet and had torn edges.
On October 15, Nguyen brought the tickets to the Thua Thien-Hue Lottery Company and was instructed to come to the province's police department for an appraisal. Nguyen paid VND12 million for the appraisal fee. However, the Thua Thien-Hue Lottery Company then took the results and refused to tell her.
On October 29, the company announced that it would refuse to pay the jackpot. They explained that the ticket had shrunk and had one of its corners torn, so it could not be qualified for the prize.
Meanwhile, following Nguyen's request, the police released the results, which showed that her ticket was not fake and that the numbers on it were original.
Many lawyers in HCM City and Danang have offered to help Nguyen in her case for free.
One of the lawyers, Nguyen Trung Thanh, from Dong Phuong Luat Company in HCM City, told local media that he wanted to help Nguyen win her lawsuit against the state-owned Thua Thien-Hue Lottery Company.
In 2013, the Kien Giang Provincial Lottery Company also refused to pay a man whose winning ticket was accidentally torn by his relative.
However, the Ministry of Finance asked the lottery company to pay the owner of a torn lottery ticket with a prize worth VND100 million (USD 4,500).
According to the ministry, the ticket was unintentionally torn but was still clear enough to read.