Lottery jackpot: Hundreds of millions unclaimed every year
More than a half a billion dollars went missing last year — in glove compartments, washing machines, desk drawers and sometimes even literally in the trash.
That's because big lottery jackpots that go unclaimed or come close to expiring get plenty of attention, but people fail to cash out on millions in smaller prizes every year — especially casual players who
only jump in when the jackpot swells as big as Tuesday’s Mega Millions drawing, which was hovering around $640 million.
NBC News reached out to the 43 states that participate in Mega Millions and Powerball to find out just how much money is left unclaimed at the end of the year.
More than 30 states responded, and the results were staggering.
In 2013, there was more than $500 million in unclaimed lottery prizes from scratch-off games, Lotto and daily games. While the number fluctuates each year, it can sometimes total more than big Mega Millions
and Powerball individual jackpots.
And 2013 was an unusually low year, according to several state lottery officials.
“Everybody must need their money this year,” said Danielle Frizzi-Babb, a spokeswoman for the Ohio state lottery. This year, Ohio’s unclaimed prizes totaled $16.2 million, but Frizzi-Babb said it’s usually
higher.
When a jackpot gets as big as Tuesday’s people get so excited about the jackpot that they forget there are smaller but substantial prizes to be had. If see that the jackpot number wasn’t hit, or see that
someone won in a different state, they often just scrap their ticket.
“When you have a number that’s that large, everyone gets focused on the jackpot and they do lose sight of the fact that there are second, third, fourth place prizes,” said Christy Calicchia, a spokeswoman for the New York state lottery.
For example according to the Mega Millions website, the second prize, for someone who matched just five numbers, is $1 million, with odds of 1 in 18,492,204. Matching four numbers gets you $500, and matching
three numbers plus the mega ball wins $50. With odds of 1-in-10,720, that's not so bad compared to the one-in-258,890,850 chance of hitting the jackpot.
But many big money seekers don't even realize they can cash in with less than a perfect ticket.
“There are some people who really only play when the jackpot is high,” Calicchia said.
According to Monday’s projections, ticket sales on Tuesday would be more than double than last week when the jackpot was a relatively measly $344 million, said Paula Otto, the Mega Millions' lead director.
And all of those people that lottery experts call “occasional players” might not know that even if they don’t win the jackpot, they could still be holding a $5 million ticket if they “megaplied” by adding an
extra dollar when they bought their ticket, Otto said.
“We used to do a little tracking of unclaimed prizes years ago, but have given up,” said Charles Strutt, executive director of the Multi-State Lottery Association. Now, individual states maintain their own
records.
(source:
usnews.nbcnews.com)
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