Have You Ever Wondered What Happens to Unclaimed Lottery Prizes?
It’s weird to think that someone could win the lottery and not know it. It was recently released in the US that there were over $800 million worth of unclaimed lottery prizes in 2013. That’s a staggering number to think about. Almost $1 billion dollars of unclaimed lottery prizes in a single year? How could somebody possibly not realize that they won millions of dollars? What the?!?
Generally the unclaimed lottery prizes are the ones in which the player had not won the jackpot, but had instead won a significant lesser prize. The Powerball and Mega Millions pays out players $1 million for having the five regular numbers correct. There’s a good possibility that many people simply don’t realize they won because they find out the jackpot winner was from a different state and then don’t even check think to check their tickets. I’d say this excuse is more understandable for those of us on the east coast, who have to wait until about 11 PM to hear what the winning numbers are. A man’s gotta sleep you know…
Most states give lottery winners anywhere from 180-365 days to claim their lottery winnings. Since it’s unthinkable that someone could actually just forget to claim their prizes in that amount of time – at least major prizes – my guess would that most of the reason for unclaimed lottery prizes comes from people simply losing their tickets or assuming that they didn’t win.
Protecting Yourself From a Lost Lottery Ticket
Losing a lottery ticket is probably the number one reason that there are millions of dollars worth of unclaimed lottery prizes out there. I can think of multiple times where I’ve lost or misplaced my Powerball or Mega Millions tickets. We go pick them up from the local convenience store, shove them in our pockets, and wait for the drawing. We play so darn often – and lose so darn often – that we don’t even treat the ticket as if it’s worth anything or as if it has the opportunity to win us millions of dollars.
A good habit to get into to prevent lost tickets is to print and sign your name on the back of every ticket you buy. Most states have laws that say that the person whose name is on the back of the ticket is the only one who can claim the winnings. Now obviously you’d have to run into someone nice enough to also return the ticket to you – which might be a stretch – but if your name is on the back and the person who finds it knows it’s a winner then there is certainly an incentive for them to return the ticket and hope that we throw a few dollars their way. It’s of no use to them with someone else’s name on it and the potential is there that they could pick up a few bucks from the winner for returning it.
Obviously the best way to protect yourself from a lost lottery ticket is to not lose the darn ticket in the first place. Throwing it into our pockets is definitely one of the worst habits you can get into with lottery tickets, we all know how that usually turns out. I’ve made the attempt to start folding my tickets and putting them into my wallet. We tend to take pretty good care of the contents of our wallets so this may be a good idea for you as well.
Gut Wrenching Unclaimed Lottery Prize Stories
There are circumstances that would make it slightly understandable for someone to not realize that they’ve won a million dollars or so. But not realizing you won a $10.4 million Powerball jackpot? I’m definitely not letting someone make an excuse for that. That’s what happened in Tampa, Florida after someone failed to claim the jackpot after winning in May 2013. The opportunity to claim the prize ended in November 2013, meaning someone just up and lost $10.4 million dollars.
Another interesting story comes from California where a man tried to claim his winning ticket of about $450,000. The problem was he tried to claim the ticket following the 180 day deadline. It was even confirmed throw video that he was the man that bought the ticket. No sympathy from me on that one. A lot of people are procrastinators, but I think this guy took procrastination to a whole new level.
But Where Do the Unclaimed Lottery Prizes Really Go?
Well, the answer to this varies for just about every single state. Since we’re talking about the US in this instance, here’s a look at some of the state’s policies on unclaimed lottery tickets:
New York puts unclaimed lottery prizes right back into the prize pool. Unclaimed lottery prizes in Wisconsin go towards helping to offset hefty property taxes. Pennsylvania sends their unclaimed money towards programs that help seniors. Ohio, California, North Carolina, and many other states throw their unclaimed tickets towards their education funds.
At least we can find comfort knowing the unclaimed lottery prizes are going towards good causes in just about every instance and that it’s not just being thrown to the government to use at their discretion.
I can’t say anybody will truly ever understand how someone could not claim a significant lottery prize. With all the information given to us by the news about where and when major tickets were won, it’s baffling to think that people could just simply not realize they won. While unclaimed lottery prizes are always going to boggle the minds of those of us that play the lottery on a regular basis, it’s at least comforting to know that the money is going towards helping lower many of our taxes!
