Officials with Tennessee Boys and Girls Club chapters hope lawmakers will give them some of the unclaimed prize money from the new state lottery.
The law that created the lottery requires that half of all unclaimed winnings go back into the prize pool at the end of each fiscal year, while the rest is placed in a special account for after-school programs.
The lottery legislation's House sponsor - Rep. Chris Newton, R-Cleveland - said deciding which after-school programs get the money is one of the "loose ends" the General Assembly must "hammer out" during the upcoming legislative session.
The first lottery tickets are expected to go on sale by Feb. 10.
Players will have 90 days to claim their scratch-off winnings and 180 days to cash in their online tickets, said Tennessee Lottery Corp. spokesman Will Pinkston.
"We found out the unclaimed prize money didn't have a designation," said Lisa Hurst, the vice president of development for the Boys and Girls Club of the Tennessee Valley. "We made sure to educate our legislators on how the after-school funding could help."
Hurst said the Boys and Girls Clubs was named as the designated organization at one point during the drafting of the lottery legislation but was taken out after some legislators objected.
"There are some areas in Tennessee that Boys and Girls Clubs are not housed, so they didn't want to just limit it to one program," she said. Eighteen Boys and Girls Clubs across the state serve 37,000 children, she said.
Newton said legislative advisers decided that naming a single after-school program in the lottery law would be "constitutionally suspect" and could open the door for potential lawsuits from programs not selected.
However, Newton said the Boys and Girls Clubs would be ideal. He estimated that half of each year's unclaimed prize money would amount to about $350,000.
"Not many folks with a winning ticket are going to let it sit on a shelf," he said. "This is not going to be any cash cow for an after-school program."
Newton said Tennessee lawmakers will designate one or more organizations to receive the unclaimed funds after seeking recommendations from the Department of Education.
In-state unclaimed winnings should go towards future prizes.