Chinese man blows savings celebrating US$780,000 lottery win ... then finds out he was mistaken

A man in southern China threatened to kill himself after he realised he had spent all his savings celebrating, mistakenly believing he had won a lottery prize of 5 million yuan (US$788,000).

The 28-year-old living in Jinjiang in eastern Fujian province was contacted by the police before he took any action to harm himself, the Strait City Daily reported.

A frequent lottery player, the man had spent a lot of time researching how to win in the hope of hitting the jackpot, the report said.

He “calculated” a winning lottery number and bought a ticket last Tuesday, placing it in a drawer. When he checked the winning numbers a week later, he misremembered his own numbers by one digit and thought he had won the jackpot of 5 million yuan.

Overjoyed by the news, he treated a group of relatives and friends at a nightclub, spending all his savings of 5,000 yuan and also overdrawing 3,000 yuan on his credit card.