Spring Festival disappointment! Chinese company makes employee return ₹7.14 crore lottery prize— here's why

A company in China's Ningbo area in Zhejiang province has been blasted on local social media platforms after an employee revealed they were asked to return the ₹7.14 crore (6 million yuan) lottery prize won at a Spring Festival event, Hindustan Times reported.

As part of the Chinese Spring Festival celebrations in March 2019, the company reportedly distributed more than 500 lottery tickets to its employees, and one lucky staff won the big prize, only to be told to return the money.

Why Was Employee Asked to Return Prize?

As per the report, the company wanted to equally distribute the money among all of its employees and hence asked the winning staff to return the prize.

Netizens Debate Corporate Policy, Employee Rights

While the story is not new, it regularly resurfaces on Chinese social media as the Spring Festival approaches as netizens share similar stories of their companies hosting lottery events. Some netizens even speculated that the story is a way to boost declining lottery ticket sales amid the festival season.

The report noted that news of the lottery win was widely celebrated on social media, and thus, the return demand sparked debate over whether the take-back was allowed by corporate policy and whether the employees' rights were ignored.

US Woman Wins ₹40 lakh lottery – thanks to numbers she saw in dream

Meanwhile, in an opposite holiday lottery story in the US, a woman recently won a ₹42.96 lakh lottery prize in a Pick 5 draw — but from numbers she saw in a dream, as per her claims.

After purchasing the tickets during the holiday season, the woman and her husband attended a party. Later that night, when they tallied their ticket, they were stunned to find out that they had hit the jackpot.

The Maryland resident from Prince George's County explained that she bought a Pick 5 ticket a week after dreaming about the winning numbers. She told lottery authorities that in her dream, a specific sequence of digits appeared that resonated deeply. Trusting her intuition, she visited the ‘Oxon Hill Zip In Mart’ and purchased a Pick 5 ticket using the numbers 9-9-0-0-0.

According to the Maryland Lottery website, the woman won the evening draw on December 20, 2024, in the Pick 5 ticket category.