A man in Can Tho City is planning to sue Vinh Long Lottery Company after they refused to pay him a prize.

 Ly Hung Phu holds his winning ticket

On June 20, Ly Hung Phu, from Co Do Town, bought a lottery ticket. However, due to his busy work schedule, he forgot about the ticket until July 20, when he found out that he won VND6 million (USD285). The ticket would expire that day, so Phu quickly went to a lottery ticket agent. Both the agent and a Vinh Long employee told him that he would have to wait until after the weekend.

However, the lottery agent called him on Monday and said that Vinh Long refused to pay because the had ticket expired. Nguyen Kim Anh, a cashier at Vinh Long, said the regulations issued by the Ministry of Finance stated that the deadline to receive prize money would not exceed 30 days. The company will not deal with overdue prizes, even if the expiration falls on a weekend. She said, "These are common rules. It is the customer's responsibility to know the rules and make sure they have time to claim any prizes."

Phu, however, said that nothing is written on the ticket about not being able to claim prizes on weekends. He went on to say that he planned to file lawsuit not because of VND6 million but to push Vinh Long and relevant agencies to make more clear rules.

Nguyen Thanh Nhan, a lottery agent, said, "I think Vinh Long is being too rigid in this case. In reality, many companies still pay prizes one day after expiration date," he said.

Huynh Cao Luc, an attorney, said, "Actually, customers can submit explanations as to why they were unable to claim their prize before expiration. Both he and the company should be more flexible to deal with this situation in a civil manner. If this case were brought to court, it would affect both customer and company's reputation."

He also said that, if the ticket does not include clarification about not working on weekends, then they still would have to pay out the prize.