Happy Money

In South Korea, happy money are vouchers for both online and offline purchases with participating businesses. Happy money can be redeemed in person at restaurants and stores or on the Internet at retail websites and virtual gaming portals.

The visible sixteen-digit number in the scratch-off section of the voucher indicates it has been redeemed online. If the owner had redeemed the voucher offline, the scratch-off section would still be intact. 

The donor, Stephen C. Rea, is associated with the Institute for Money, Technology, and Financial Inclusion at the University of California at Irvine, which conducts research on gaming in South Korea. In 2012 he watched a man purchase this happy money at an Internet cafe in Dongkyo-dong, in Seoul, and redeem it through an online gaming portal.