Lottery Prize Unclaimed – Someone in UK is About to Miss Out on $9M

Posted on: December 7, 2022, 11:55h. 

Last updated on: December 7, 2022, 01:11h.

Erik Gibbs Read More
Expertise: Asia Pacific Gaming, Gaming Business, Global Gaming.

Most people who play the lottery in hopes of winning some money, even if it’s not the top prize, run to collect as soon as they find out they won. However, someone in the UK is sitting on a ticket worth £7.4 million (US$9 million) but doesn’t seem too interested in cashing it in.

National Lottery Lotto ticket
A lottery player in the UK fills out a National Lottery Lotto ticket. A winner is about to lose a jackpot worth $9 million if he or she doesn’t come forward within a week. (Image: The Mirror)

Camelot, the operator of the UK National Lottery, has been waiting since June 18 for a lottery winner to come forward. On that day, someone in Wolverhampton took down the Lotto jackpot, but still hasn’t claimed it.

Time is quickly running out. In accordance with lottery procedures, a winner has six months to turn up, or the money is lost forever. This means the June 18 Lotto winner only has one week left before it’s too late.

Sitting on a Fortune

The exact total of the jackpot was £7,440,150.00 (US$9.08 million). That’s enough to buy about 18 Ferrari Stradales, or maybe 100 tickets to see Taylor Swift in concert, depending on what Ticketmaster is up to.

If no one claims the winnings, they’ll go back into the National Lottery, where the money will be used for various charity programs and internal marketing expenses. This past June, Camelot reported that, including money from unclaimed prizes, it spent £1.91 billion (US$2.33 billion) on worthy causes in its 2022 fiscal year.

In some instances, winners don’t place claims because they never realize they won. For others, buying a ticket is a matter of habit, after which they simply forget that they did.

There are also instances where winners intentionally failed to turn in a ticket. After realizing they won, they tossed the ticket aside, worried about how their lives might change if they accepted the money.

Still, there are other times when life gets in the way. Some people buy their tickets, stick them in a wallet or purse and never get around to checking them. They may eventually, but the amount of money the National Lottery has taken back from winning draws shows that there are more than a few who don’t.

That wasn’t the case for the EuroMillions winner, who picked up almost £55 million (US$67 million) in the EuroMillions this past summer. It only took a couple of days for the anonymous person to make a mad dash for the nearest National Lottery office to confirm the prize.

Lottery players in the UK had a good run in November. There were several multimillion-pound prizes awarded, including another £7.4 million jackpot, one for £3.8 million (US$4.64 million), and one for £12.8 million (US$15.64 million).

A Lottery and a Baby

An expectant mother and lottery player in North Carolina recently had fortune smile on her twice on the same day. Not only did the 28-year-old housekeeper give birth to a healthy daughter on November 9, but she also won a Powerball draw the same day.

The North Carolina Lottery posted a notice on its website about the good fortune, with the new mother, Brenda Gomez Hernandez, delivering her baby only hours before she learned of her $100K win. Using the birthdays of her other children as the lottery numbers, she can honestly say that all of her children brought her good luck.

After she gives the state and federal government their share of the money, the new mother and new lottery winner will take home around $65K. Hernandez plans on using most of the money to pay down the mortgage on her home.