Unclaimed Virginia Lottery prizes can occasionally be found concealed beneath a refrigerator magnet or wedged within the center console of your car.
Regardless, always remember to verify the lottery numbers. That small piece of paper might turn into a substantial sum of money, but only if you confirm the winning numbers and submit your claim promptly.
- A woman from Baltimore had her Powerball tickets accidentally knocked off her night table by her cat in 2019. Luckily, she managed to clean up the mess just in time to discover and redeem her winning ticket worth $50,000.
- Despite being caught in a 2017 snowstorm, an Oregon man found himself motivated to tidy his home office. To his astonishment, he stumbled upon a forgotten Mega Millions ticket from that year, which was still worth an impressive $1 million. Determined and undeterred by the heavy snowfall, he promptly claimed his well-deserved prize on the very same day.
In 2018, the Virginia Lottery narrowly avoided missing out on two prizes worth $4 million as winners came forward just in time before the deadline. Additionally, the lottery also experienced instances of unclaimed prizes.
In 2016, there were three Virginia Lottery Powerball tickets valued at $50,000 each that went unclaimed, resulting in a missed opportunity for a significant cash prize.
In the state, the annual sum of unclaimed prizes can potentially reach $10 million; however, these prizes generally consist of smaller amounts rather than colossal jackpots.
The whys of unclaimed Virginia Lottery prizes
According to John Hagerty, a spokesperson for the Virginia Lottery, prizes have a tendency to expire more frequently than people realize, as reported by lotterypost.com.
Occasionally, individuals who are not regular players may join in the hope of winning a massive jackpot. However, they often forget about their tickets afterwards. As a result, the quantity of unclaimed smaller prizes tends to rise as a significant jackpot accumulates.
Hagerty suggested that individuals might not have been aware that they could still win smaller prizes even if they didn’t win the major jackpot.
Brett Jacobson, a lottery expert, shared the same sentiment, emphasizing that many individuals are unaware of the existence of secondary prizes.
It is worth mentioning again because even someone as prominent as a former Iowa governor did not realize his unexpected financial gain immediately. Tom Vilsack, the present US Secretary of Agriculture, eventually decided to verify his ticket in 2020 and discovered that he had won $150,000. Following this, he urged the public to make sure to “check your ticket. It is significant.”
Certain winners intentionally postpone claiming their significant jackpot, utilizing the period to strategize and prepare for their forthcoming transformed lives.
When it comes to lotto wins in Virginia, there is a 180-day window for winners to claim their prize. This deadline also applies to scratch games that reach their conclusion.
Instead of utilizing unclaimed lottery wins to support a bonus game, Virginia takes a different approach. The state utilizes abandoned winnings to provide financial backing for low-interest loans aimed at school construction, technology upgrades, and renovations. Over the years, the Virginia Lottery has successfully transferred an impressive amount of over $320 million in unclaimed winnings to this fund since 1988.
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