The clock is ticking as we wait for the winners of three huge recent jackpots won within a two-week period to come forward.
$70 million Powerball jackpot won in Pontiac, Michigan on February 12, 2020. The winner must claim within one year of the draw date, according to state law.
$202 million Mega Millions jackpot won in Edison, New Jersey on February 11. The claim period is one year from the draw date.
$396.9 million Powerball jackpot won in Bonita Springs, Florida on January 29. Florida law gives the winner 180 days from the draw date to claim.
These winners still have plenty of time left. But it is possible that they will never collect their incredible prizes, because they'll never even know they won.
It is very unusual for a huge Powerball or Mega Millions jackpot to expire unclaimed, given all the media attention on the winning numbers and the store that sold the ticket - but sometimes it does happen.
What is much more common than you might think is the number of prizes - sometimes very big ones - that expire every year all across the country.
Incredibly, lottery players let billions of dollars in winnings expire every year. Winners missed out on a total of $2.89 billion in the 12 months to June 2017, according to research by lottery expert Brett Jacobson, who crunched numbers from every state lottery.
Everything from a couple of bucks through to millions of dollars is routinely left on the table. There were 167 unclaimed prizes of $1 million or more in fiscal year 2017 alone!
Most recently, a $14.6 million prize expired in Arizona in December 2019. The ticket holder never came forward, so we'll probably never know whether the ticket was lost, tossed in the trash, or maybe even now is sitting quietly in the back of a drawer.
Unfortunately, the prize is now gone for good. Once the claim period expires, so does the prize.
There are currently 29 Powerball prizes of $50,000 or more that will expire in the next six months. Two of those, sold in Kentucky and Missouri, are worth $1 million each, while another two sold in Kentucky and Louisiana are each worth $100,000.
Some of these prizes will be claimed before they expire - but some likely will not. Sometimes even the prizes for instant win scratch-off tickets are never claimed, Jacobson said.
Below are the three major reasons why ticket holders never claim their winnings.
Mistake #1: Losing tickets
It's quite common to outright lose tickets, whether it's behind the couch or stuffed into a coat pocket.
That was the situation of California mechanic Hung Nguyen in 2015. The father of a five-month-old was unaware that he'd won a $1,098,624 Powerball prize after he matched all five main numbers.
In an effort to locate the winner, the California Lottery publicized surveillance video showing the purchase of the ticket. Nguyen’s boss recognized him and told him that he had won, but Nguyen thought it was a prank.
Unfortunately, he'd lost the ticket he bought six months previously. Winners must have a ticket to claim, so he was not able to get his prize. The unclaimed winnings were distributed to California schools.
Nguyen said that although he was sad about the missed opportunity, he would keep playing - and would be much more careful with his tickets in the future.
Mistake #2: Not checking your numbers
Another common mistake is not checking your tickets. Players often don't bother if the jackpot didn't go off or the winning ticket wasn't sold in their area.
People also put tickets away, intending to check them, and then simply forget about them until it's too late.
Mistake #3: Not knowing there are more prizes than the jackpot
Many players are simply not aware that there are more prizes - sometimes big ones - than just the jackpot. "People don't even realize there are secondary prizes," said Jacobson.
One of those was former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack, who won a $150,000 Powerball prize on January 22, 2020. "Sort of a word to the wise: Check your numbers. It matters," he advised.
"There are different ways to win. I didn't realize that. I honestly didn't realize you could win by not having all of the numbers. And so people sometimes walk away from some resources and some money when they don't check their ticket."
The bigger the jackpot, the bigger the number of unclaimed prizes tends to be. More people buy tickets when there are huge jackpots, but often don't check whether they've won a lower-tier prize - which could still be $1 million or more.
Below are the claim periods for each jurisdiction. Times are from the date of the drawing.
90 days: New Mexico
180 days: Arizona, Arkansas, California (non-jackpot prizes), Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico,South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington State, Washington D.C., West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming
182 days: Maryland
Six months: U.S. Virgin Islands
One year: California (jackpot winners), Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont
Unclaimed jackpots are very rare, but they do happen. Here are eight big jackpots that have expired unclaimed, from smallest to largest. Unfortunately, even if the tickets were turned in now, they're no longer worth anything.
$14.6 million The Pick ticket purchased in Arizona on June 5, 2019
$16.6 million Powerball ticket purchased in Florida on May 25, 2013
$31 million Mega Millions ticket purchased in New York on August 1, 2006
$46 million Mega Millions ticket purchased in New York on April 25, 2003
$51.7 million Powerball ticket purchased in Indiana on September 14, 2002
$63 million Super Lotto ticket purchased in California on August 8, 2015
$68 million Mega Millions ticket purchased in New York on December 24, 2002.
A man sued for the prize, saying he "lost the ticket in a non-retrievable situation." Officials investigated but found no ticket matching his description in the Lottery’s archive or the place where he claimed to have purchased the ticket.
$77.1 million Powerball ticket purchased in Georgia on June 29, 2011.
There are a surprising number of big jackpot winners who, having overcome overwhelming odds to win, almost lost their tickets and came this close to never claiming their life-changing prizes.
Lerynne West: $343.9 million Powerball jackpot
Lerynne West, the Redfield, Iowa woman who won half the $687 Powerball jackpot on October 27, 2018, thought she had put her ticket into her purse as she sat in the passenger seat of her sister’s truck.
But the day after the drawing, West realized she didn't have her ticket.
She called her sister, who finally found the precious item on the floor of her truck. Her sister sent a photo, and West realized she'd won the jackpot.
“I told my sister to get in her truck and get that ticket and get up here right now! And, drive slow,” West smiled.
Michael Weirsky: $273 million Mega Millions jackpot
Michael Weirsky of Alpha, New Jersey, won the $273 million Mega Millions jackpot on March 1, 2019. After buying his tickets, Weirsky left them behind on the store counter when he got distracted by his phone.
But his good luck hadn't run out yet. Another customer saw the tickets and gave them to the clerk.
Eventually, Weirsky realized he'd misplaced the tickets. He searched his house, and finally returned to the store the day after the drawing and found the tickets safely waiting for him.
Jimmie Smith: $24.1 million New York Lottery jackpot
Jimmie Smith, a 68-year-old grandfather from East Orange, New Jersey, had no idea that he had won a multimillion-dollar prize on May 25, 2016.
As the one-year deadline to claim got closer, local news reported the winner hadn't come forward. Luckily, Smith saw the story and checked a shirt pocket where he'd stashed old tickets - incredibly, the winning ticket was there.
Unable to believe his luck, "I had to stick my head out the window and breathe in some fresh air,” he said. “I was in serious doubt. I really had to convince myself this was real."
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