Biggest unclaimed lottery winnings: Unlucky even though lucky

Many around the world became unlucky even though they were lucky because of their biggest unclaimed winnings at the nick of time due to the lost tickets, unavailable funds in their wallet, or unawareness. Every individual lottery player used to think that having the winning lottery numbers come up could take them to the next level, making them some of the luckiest people alive in the world, but for some players, it remains the unluckiest thing that has ever happened to them.

Lottery winners who missed out on their winnings were lucky winners

Rachel and Liam: Unlucky though lucky

There was a couple named Rachel Kennedy and Liam McCrohanf from Hertfordshire who played the lottery regularly with the same seven digits ticket numbers for some weeks. The seven-digit Euro Million ticket numbers they used to play every week are 6, 12, 22, 29, 33, 6, 11. One fine Friday, these seven-digit numbers came up as the winning ticket to win £182million. They both were happy, but unfortunately, they had won nothing. Yes, they were not able to claim their winnings because they set up the payment method in such a way to automatically buy Euro Million tickets, but on that day, when their ticket number had come up, they had not enough money in their account to make payment for the lottery tickets. The following was the reply they got from that particular lottery platform: ‘yeah you’ve got the right numbers, but you didn’t have the funds in your account for the payment of the ticket, so it didn’t go through.’ The problem was that they didn’t check and were not aware of their account before the draw.

Martyn and Kay

Secondly, Martyn and Kay Tott, who were engaged, play the lottery regularly with the same Euro Million ticket numbers. They won £3million back in 2001. But, the truth about them is they came to know that they won this huge amount only after six months of purchasing their ticket. Could they claim their winnings? If they had their ticket with them, they could but here is their story: they lost their ticket. They went to the lottery operator to claim their winning amount but asked to show their ticket, they couldn’t. Kay asked the operator to check the computer. While checking it was proved that Kay bought this ticket. Unfortunately, that platform had one more undeniable rule that lost tickets must be reported to the operator 30 days before. The operator said, “Sorry, you cannot claim your winning of £3million.” They were devastated after knowing that they would never touch that winning amount.

Salvatore Cambria and Erick Onyango

It was a terrible mistake that Salvatore Cambria made. What did he do actually? Erick Onyango was a bookkeeper. He bought a ticket for the Powerball jackpot, and his ticket number was the winning number to win the $1 million Powerball jackpot in 2013. But Cambria, who was Erick’s friend, read the wrong ticket number and informed Erick that their ticket didn’t match the winning number this time. So, he crumpled the ticket up and threw it into the dust bin. To be honest, the ticket that Cambria had in his hand was worth $1million. They started looking for the ticket to claim their win, in landfills and other muddy. dusty places but they couldn’t find the ticket. It led them to a miserable situation because they were not able to claim their winnings worth $1 million because of a lost ticket.

Anthony Perosi 

He was a plumber from New York who bought a Powerball ticket. After purchasing the ticket, he forgot about the lottery. The draw took place, and one of his friends reminded him of the draw for the Powerball jackpot but he never gave thought to checking his ticket numbers when his friend told him that another man won the lottery. After one month, when he was driving his truck, the truck stopped at once due to some problem. While thinking about how to fork out money for repairs, he remembered his ticket. He started searching for the ticket to see the number. To his surprise, He came to know that his ticket number won $136million last month. Then, he claimed his winnings but this time he got all his wins because he had his ticket with him while claiming his winnings.

Fact around the biggest unclaimed jackpots

It is said that 3 out of 4 of the unclaimed MegaMillions jackpot-winning tickets were purchased in the New York boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn. The prizes were worth, say,  $68 million, $46 million, and $31 million. 

Unclaimed lottery prizes

  1. $51.7million in Indiana in 2002.
  2. £63.8million in June 2012 in Hertfordshire.
  3. $68million in New York in 2002.
  4. $31million in Queens, New York, in 2006.
  5. $77.1million in Georgia, US, in June 2011.
  6. $63million in 2015 in California.
  7. $46million in 2003 in Brooklyn, New York.

The largest unclaimed jackpot came from a Florida lottery in the United States. A $369.9 million jackpot was won on a ticket purchased in January 2020 in Bonita Springs, Florida. Many times, a Mega Millions or Powerball jackpot will go unclaimed. The length of time that winners can claim their prize varies by state. The $731.1 million Powerball jackpot won in January was unclaimed, although the winner has six months to claim it.

Solution

What should you do to claim your winning before they pass the expiration date?

  1. You are advised to read to know the content, terms, and condition of the lottery platform you choose to play the lottery.
  2. Be conscious before and after purchasing the tickets to not let your winnings go unclaimed if you win the jackpots. Have your lottery tickets with you until the draw gets over and you get your winning prizes.
  3. Choose reliable and transparent lottery platforms which will help support you by letting you know your winnings on the day of the lottery drawing if you hit the jackpot matching six or seven-digit ticket numbers as the Jumbo Ticket online lottery platform which always provides the best online lottery experience to its users.  
  4. Remember the date of purchasing your lottery ticket and the draw date.
  5. Make sure your account/wallet has enough money to buy tickets automatically if you set up the automatic process to purchase tickets online. It will help you all the way possible.

Conclusion

It would be exciting, when you win over $40, $74.50, £140, or £400 and claim it as it is all your money. Right? Make sure you never miss out on your winnings for any reason. Many won huge lottery winnings, and many lottery winnings went unclaimed as well. What does it teach every lottery player? Yes, Even though they are lucky, most of the time, they remain unlucky without claiming their lottery winnings.

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Biggest unclaimed lottery winnings: Unlucky even though lucky

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