You’ve never wondered what happens to unclaimed lottery prizes? Statistics say that between 30 and 70% of the prizes are not claimed.
Usually these are small prizes to which players do not give much importance, in other cases is that the winners never came to know that they had won, also happens to lose the lottery ticket so they can not claim the prize. These are some well-known examples:
- The case of a British citizen, who was lucky enough to win 68 million dollars in the Euromillion draw last summer and nobody has yet gone to claim the prize.
- Another famous case, happened in 2005, when there was a prize of 14 million dollars, left in Illinois, and that was never claimed.
- Just as in 2002, there was also a millionaire hyper prize of 52 million in Indiana, which was not collected by anyone either. And the same year the same thing happened with a prize of 4.6 million dollars, in Massachusetts.
- Connecticut seems to hold the record for unclaimed lottery prizes: since the lottery opened in 1972, with 1,100 drawings made, 11 prizes were never claimed.
- In Spain, as of 2007, around 420 million euros of lottery prizes had not been collected, 7% of the total number of prizes drawn.
Who gets the prizes that aren’t collected?
There are many reasons why these lucky ones don’t get to claim the prize, but then what about the unclaimed prizes?
In countries like Spain the rule is that this money not collected, goes to the coffers of the public treasury. In 2017 it is estimated that the figure would be no more and no less than 50 million euros.
There are countries like France that, in their lottery, the prizes not collected are integrated into a super jackpot that takes place once a year.
In countries such as Guatemala, one of the most common causes for not collecting tickets is that they had to collect them at the same agency where they played and it happened that the players traveled to another department and even knowing that they won they could not collect the prize because they were in another location, therefore, the management of lotteries provided that if the prize won was less than $2,000 could collect it at any agency in the country, to facilitate access to players.
Stop claiming a lottery prize, can happen to anyone, many times by forgetfulness, and after days we have found a winning ticket in the glove compartment of the car, in the chest of drawers or in the wallet, the important thing is that you already know what happens with unpaid prizes, so if you win do not let anything in the world go to collect what belongs to you, so that you do not enjoy another, what you can enjoy and what you can collaborate with others.
At the suggestion of many lottery users, requests have been made for these prizes that have not been collected, after the time they require for their cancellation, become part of donations to different foundations, which help in different areas to the life, conservation and improvement of all beings in the world and among the most needy.
Try to always keep your ticket in hand, thanks to the fact that we currently have a technological tool that allows us to verify the results of the lottery through the Internet. In this way we could not let our prize get lost and not be able to enjoy what luck has given them.
The young man who was late to claim a prize
However, the most resounding case occurred in the United States in 1996, when a 23-year-old arrived three days after the deadline to claim a $3.5 million lottery prize. He was denied payment because it was out of time, a topic provided for in the lottery regulations.
The young man took the case to trial, alleging that, on the one hand, he had been taking care of his sick father and therefore had not been able to go to a lottery sale to review the results of the draws and verify whether his number had won, and, on the other hand, that the deadline had expired in the term, and the days of cancellation had occurred on a weekend, plus a holiday, so that the agencies closest to his father’s home were closed.