Lengthy waits are common for big lottery winners in California
Includes video report
By Kate Northrop
A California man claiming he won a $44 million Powerball jackpot in August says he has been waiting over nine weeks to receive the winnings from the California Lottery.
A frequent lottery player, an Orange County resident named Jerry says he has yet to see the winnings from a $44 million Powerball jackpot prize deposited into his account.
"Fantasy 5, Powerball, Super Lotto, Mega [Millions]... I play all the games," he told ABC7 reporters.
Ahead of the Aug. 19, 2024 Powerball drawing, Jerry purchased tickets at the Ralphs grocery store on Golden Lantern in Dana Point using his own numbers. He reportedly won the jackpot by matching all five white ball numbers — 1, 2, 15, 23, and 28 — plus the Powerball number 10.
"It was exciting in a really subtle way because you don't anticipate ever hitting all six," Jerry said in an interview. "Six numbers on the Powerball is... the odds are you'll die before... You'll walk out and get hit by lightning before you win that one."
It is unclear when Jerry officially submitted his claim to the California Lottery, though he says he has been waiting over nine weeks without any update.
"The process is really horrible for a winner of a big... any big lotto winnings," he continued. "They won't tell you by this date, you'll get the funds. They won't tell you that. They leave it open-ended so you're sitting, waiting daily."
In April, Lottery Post investigated the lengthy payout timeline for $1.08 billion Powerball winner Yanira Alvarez, in which she waited more than five months to receive the prize since filing a claim with the Lottery.
Lottery Director of Public Affairs and Communications Carolyn Becker explained to Lottery Post that verifying a winner is not as simple as one might expect, and that paying out a multimillion-dollar prize can take much longer than processing a smaller win.
The fastest a winner might get paid is four weeks, but that is very uncommon. In addition to processing more than 10,000 claims a month, Lottery officials follow a very thorough vetting procedure that could result in a six to eight week waiting period. Even then, it is possible that it could take longer depending on the backlog of lottery claims and other factors to do with the claimant's case.
The first part of the vetting process is usually the most rigorous, which involves a law enforcement investigation of the winner from an "integrity" standpoint. The claimant's account of their win is cross-examined for factual accuracy. If the information they provide doesn't line up with data the Lottery has on file about the purchase, for example, it could cause an additional delay.
Then, the State Controller's office must cross check personal identifying information to ensure the claimant doesn't owe any taxes, debts, or child support. If there are indeed any owed debts, then this could trigger an extra step before the winner is issued their check.
There are several other hypothetical explanations for why a big jackpot claim might take additional time for review before being paid out, which are best outlined in Lottery Post's previous investigation.
The meticulousness on the Lottery's end is largely motivated by the need to ensure the right winner is being paid out. There are bad actors who attempt to wrongly file a claim for a jackpot that they did not win.
"Unfortunately, we do have people attempting to claim prize money that isn't rightfully theirs from time to time," Becker told Lottery Post.
The Lottery will not officially announce the winner or award the prize unless they are positive they are issuing winnings to the correct person.
In the meantime, Jerry says he is looking forward to seeing the winnings from his $44 million Powerball jackpot win deposited into his account soon.
If you would like to file a claim for a lottery prize in California, all claim forms are available on the California Lottery's website.
VIDEO: Watch the report
You can ask for a down payment of maybe 10k-15k to tide you over. They may refuse that so just go to a bank and they will loan you all the money you want at probably a very low interest rate. Probably zero if you promise to deposit a huge chunk with them after it clears.
Guilty until proven innocent
Congrats on winning 44 Million Dollars.
The first you should always do is hire an attorney to act on your behalf before you go to the Lottery Office.
Instead of going on the local news and crying about it and trying to get the public sentiment in your favor to pressure the lottery to speed your process up.
If every other state can do it in 14 days California is complicating the process because they like to get in their own way about everything. Or they're collecting their own interest while it sits in their account.
personally I think anyone who wins here should also sue and file for the lost interest for however long after 14 days it takes them to payout. A few of those and California lottery will suddenly find a way to become more efficient or hire the appropriate staff to process their 10000 claims.
Edwin Castro took the cash option of $628m. At 4.25% that's $513,000 in interest he lost for every week he waited.
Sounds like California Lottery is making the process super complicated.
I live in Colorado and here are the Powerball regulations for my state:
14.A.6 Payment of Prizes A. - Grand Prizes shall be paid at the election of the Ticket Holder either by a single cash payment or in a series of annuity payments. The Ticket Holder becomes entitled to the Prize at the time the Prize is validated as a Prize Winner. However, the Grand Prize is paid by the Lottery upon receipt of funds from MUSL no earlier than fifteen (15) calendar days of Validation of the Grand Prize Ticket and when the player makes their final selection of cash or annuity, no later than sixty (60) days after Validation of the Grand Prize Ticket. If the Ticket Holder does not make a payment election within sixty (60) days after Validation, then the Prize shall be paid as an annuity Prize.
I don’t play a lot of Powerball or Mega Millions simply because the odds are so long. I mostly play the “Lucky for Life” and “Colorado Lotto+” (Colorado’s version of Megabucks), both of which I’m more likely to take the annuity over the lump sum. Both also state that “the initial payment will be made at the time of the claim” and I also found it interesting that the regs also state “Prizes may be paid prior to receiving authorization from the Clearinghouse Lottery”.
"You can ask for a down payment of maybe 10k-15k to tide you over. They may refuse that so just go to a bank and they will loan you all the money you want at probably a very low interest rate. Probably zero if you promise to deposit a huge chunk with them after it clears. "
This might be a hard sell to a bank as you probably won’t be able to convince them you’re a legit lottery winner who hasn’t been paid by the lottery yet. I also hope he's not planing to deposit $16 million into a Wells Fargo checking account. lol
A big sum such as this Powerball win, I hope they have a lawyer and a wealth/estate manager. Your lawyer or wealth manager (from a reputable law firm) would be much better at securing funds to tide you over until your prize win hits your account.
Isn't it about 99 44/100th% sure when they take that picture of you with the big check when you first go in to claim it that you won. There may be some child support taken out or something or back taxes. I get you don't actually get the money that day but most have a bank account and if you asked nicely for an extended line of credit or a major overdraft increase I would think they would oblige or risking losing you as a customer.
If you need cash quick, I'm sure there are numerous ways to get it from your regular bank; loans, lines or credit, new credit cards, mortgage refinance, etc., especially if you're a long term client in good standing. All without telling them you're a lottery winner.
I'll disagree with you on a "pic of you with a giant check" is proof of a win. Google "custom printed giant check" and you'll find many companies can do that. But, it may be easier just to photoshop yourself into another winners pic. And now with AI more and more prevalent, I'm sure it's a lot easier to commit all types of identity theft.
My point is, when I win millions and millions of $$$. I'm not telling anyone. Not even employees at my regular bank, who have access to to my accounts...and my home address.
Texas handbook says the payment for mega millions is processed 4 days after the claim date. They have the whole process of claim online and seeing if any debts are owed is a click of a button. So unless a claimant can't provide any useful info about purchasing the ticket and there's no video wth is the lottery doing for weeks and why?
I think the most important question here is if the state lottery receives interest on the amount while it's in their accounts.
I was typing this as a reply, but I think the original comment got deleted as I was typing this. I'll post it anyway.
You’re 100% correct in stating that a private bank like Morgan Stanley (or other similar) is your best bet. But I would also have my estate/wealth manager set that up as they would have much better contacts than me just randomly contacting a bank out of the blue.
Keep in mind that that this discussion only started as a need to get “$10k-$15k” to tide you over until your actual prize $$$ hit’s your account. Personally, I wouldn’t need any $$$ to tide me over for a couple months (some savings and a lot of available credit is nice
). But if you live paycheck to paycheck and then quit your job as soon as you find out you’re a winner, you may need the extra cash. That also may be an entirely difference discussion on financial irresponsibility.
I state it again, when I win, I’m not telling anyone. If I don’t have the $$$ in 60 days, my lawyer would be the best person to find out what the holdup is. And they would also be filing multiple lawsuits on my behalf; to get the money, to get the interest on the money, etc., if the holdup reason is not acceptable by me. That’s why I would hire a lawyer, to make the process smoother for me and to keep my name out of everything.
A quick Google search tells me that you can’t claim anonymously or via a trust in California. Your full name is part of the public record. So, here’s hoping you have a common name, lol. In Colorado, they only disclose your first name, last initial and hometown (such as John S. from Denver), so that’s a little better… but California doesn’t have state taxes on lottery winnings and Colorado does…
I also believe the CA lottery purposely drags its feet in paying out winners simply to collect more interest. Carolyn Becker is acting like CA is special and unique in the fact that it performs background checks, but all states do that, and they still manage to pay in less than half the time it takes CA. 9 weeks is plenty of time to determine if "Jerry" owes child support or whatever. He should get a lawyer at this point.
Morgan Stanley and the like have wealth managers unless you just already know one you like. But I'd choose one experienced and unimpressed with millions of dollars personally. i don't think the real issue is getting money in the mean time. The issue is how freaking long it takes California to pay out and the money you're losing on interest during that time.
This one is 9 weeks and at the most conservative investment with that is $12k a week loss. On another they took 5 months. On a big jackpot, you're leaving millions on the table waiting weeks. You shouldn't need a loan to tide you over. It's not a gift they're giving out of the kindness of their heart or a favor. The winner is entitled to the payment in a reasonable time and I hope someone takes them to task for it.
Newsweek puts out a “best lawyers/law firms in America” each year for each law practice category. I would start there and see if any of the top firms under the category of private client or estate management are in your city, or in the city you want to move to. I think Time magazine might do some similar.
The August $44.3 million Powerball win would be a deposit of $16.7 million ($21.9 cash value minus the $5.2 in federal taxes automatically taken out). My Fidelity brokerage account pays 4.5% interest on any uninvested cash (it was 5% before the fed rate cut). Anyway, that would be $62k a month (or $14,451/week). My lawyer would certainly be suing for that. But in reality, we don’t know what the holdup reason is. Your lawyer would need to find that out. And if the reason is simply “the paperwork is still making its way through the system”, well that’s not a good reason, especially after 60 days.
"It's not a gift they're giving out of the kindness of their heart or a favor. The winner is entitled to the payment in a reasonable time and I hope someone takes them to task for it."
I agree 100%
In Georgia..you can get some in 24 hours, then some in 8 days, then some in 14 days, etc...im no opposed to them getting and making sure he the winner..there are a lot of scams out there..but I do know they have forensics at the headquarters and they can find out if you purchased your tickets..my friend wasted cologne on one of her tickets..she played a number ten times straight and cologne got on two of them..she had to FedEx in and let forensics do their job..it took six months and they determined the tickets were legit