Imagine winning a big lottery prize and then losing the all-important ticket. Then again, you might not even know you’ve won or forget to claim your winnings and lose out on them. Amazingly, this regularly happens, and large amounts of winnings are lost every year.
Anil Philip from Wayne County in Michigan, USA, won $150,000 in last year’s March 14 Powerball draw. The 47-year-old was excited about his win but with the ongoing pandemic worsening in the country, he decided not to claim the prize right away. It was a decision that nearly cost him his Powerball windfall.
He mislaid his winning ticket and just couldn’t find it. The clock was ticking down until its expiry date. Finally, he was able to locate it and finally he claimed his $150,000. He now plans to use the money to help pay off his student debts.
Mr Philip is far from the only person to nearly lose his lottery winnings. Nick Slatten from Tennessee, USA, also spent some time wondering just where his winning lottery ticket was.
This was no normal lottery win; it was a $1.178 million winning Tennessee Cash win from the March 11 draw. He carried on doing some errands and then was shocked to discover his ticket was missing. Finally, he found it lying on the ground in a car park right next to another car. “It’s a million-dollar ticket and someone stepped right over it,” said the $1.178 million lottery winner.
At least both of those players have been able to claim their winnings. That might not be the case for the winner of a £1 million EuroMillions prize. Someone from Coventry in England was lucky enough to become a lottery millionaire in last year’s November 6 draw.
Expired Ticket Winnings Good Causes
No one has so far come forward to claim the prize, but they better do soon. On May 5, the ticket will expire and the £1 million will go to good causes. Appeals have been made for the winner to come forward and claim their prize.
The problem is though that the winner may not even know their EuroMillions ticket was a winning one. You might ask how that could be the case. Well, it could be that the winner doesn’t regularly check their tickets.
That was the case with a 50-year-old from Maryland, USA. He won $50,000 in the January 6 Powerball draw. This player ended up with a big pile of tickets and in March, finally went through them and discovered his $50,000 win.
Another possible reason is that it is because the EuroMillions win came from the Millionaire Maker Raffle. That’s nothing to do with the numbers drawn but the matching of a code. Many times, players have just checked the numbers, seen there’s no win and just thrown the ticket away. Could this be what’s happened to the Coventry winner?
The hope is that the winner knows how lucky they have been. Perhaps they have been spending their time getting financial advice before claiming their win. Whatever the situation, they need to get a move on and come forward.