$17 million in Ohio Lottery scratch prizes unclaimed

Comment #18

LckyLary — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 01:44:34 GMT

Sometimes coming out of the ELE7VEN I see a pile of discarded scratch-offs and I scoop them up and whenever I get bored enough I check them. I've found quite a few winners of up to 15 dollars, including one where $3.00 or $6.00 was there 3 times in plain sight. People buy yards of them and rush through checking them.

Comment #17

konane — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 22:32:33 GMT

On a lighter note there's a lot to be said for dumpster diving for discards

Comment #16

cps10 — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 19:11:32 GMT

Scratch the codes, Sassy...you can figure out if won something that way.

Comment #15

justxploring — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 19:01:14 GMT

I find this thread informative because, although I haven't been buying scratch tickets lately, I will keep this in mind. It never hurts to be extra sure before tossing any ticket. I usually keep all tickets in a shoe box anyway for a while. There can always be misprints. I agree with Todd. Scratch tickets should be as easy to figure out as the raffle tickets. Your number matches or it doesn't.

One night I was tired and ready for bed, but wanted to check my Lotto tickets. I saw 3 number... [ More ]

Comment #14

Toney725 — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 18:34:50 GMT

DD;

I buy the Bingo game a lot, but rather than scratching all the numbers to see if I've won, I just scratch the caller's card and read the code. If I see a F , I V then I know that I just won $5. T , E N , F , T N , T , I , C etc...

Comment #13

SassyOhio — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 18:20:57 GMT

Ok I am really gonna puke now.. And you guys are right. Just like the Texas Holdem here in Ohio. DEAR LAWD! They will give you heart failure in a heart beat lol. I play holdem all the time and know the rules of the winning hands and they arent like that on the scratch offs so I can see games like that how winners get missed. I seen this and just put my head down I am glad I dont know where they were bought at cause then I would really want to shoot myself LMAO so looks as if no matter what

Comment #12

DoubleDown — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 15:25:55 GMT

I am going to get my PB tix later today..

I will look for it ... might even play it just for the heck of it...

DD

Comment #11

cps10 — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 15:24:24 GMT

LOL...I have no idea...I just saw one the other day when I was picking up Powerball tickets...

Comment #10

DoubleDown — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 15:21:30 GMT

American Idol scratcher ?

Please don't tell me that you scratch to reveal Paula, Randy, or Simon ???

Paula I would be ok with, but Simon...yuck.

Comment #9

cps10 — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 14:45:59 GMT

Those are the only scratchers I play ... the bingo games. I enjoy playing those...the others I couldn't give a squirt of you-know-what for. My wife loves all scratchers...especially those involving jewelry or gemstones...lol. And loves the Monopoly games. I'm surprised she hasn't hit me up for the $5 American Idol scratcher here yet...

Comment #8

RJOh — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 05:16:09 GMT

Unclaimed prize money is kept in the pot to pay off winners who do come forward.

I take that to mean the games as designed don't plan on all the winners claiming their prizes so the unclaimed money make up the difference if they do.

I've noticed the $1 tickets are the easiest to understand, they usually have nine symbols and if three of them are the same then you have a winner. It's those $10-$20 tickets with several games or ways to win that are confusing.

Comment #7

DoubleDown — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 21:37:24 GMT

Todd, good idea, but it would be too easy..

There is a bingo scratch game in GA that literally takes 10-15 minutes to see if you win or lose.

If part of the fun is "playing the game" then I guess that satisfies some..

Like Fja said, the Lottery Commission counts on player ignorance/ indifference to keep a percentage of the money......excellent point.

Comment #6

fja — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 21:18:15 GMT

You think that they want it to be easier,,,I doubt it...I'm sure they have a line item in the misc. revenue column of their budget called unclaimed tickets....and I'm sure they budget for more and more to hit that line item every year....

We use the unclaimed money to pay those that do come forward and claim the tickets isn't that what she said.....

Comment #5

Todd — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 21:10:56 GMT

I agree with this statement 100%.

Many scratch games are WAY too complicated to figure out if you're a winner or not.

What's the point? Is it really that exciting to see if the pre-printed game card contains a certain number of symbols in the right order?

I would rather scratch off the gray area to reveal one of two possible words:

WIN

~ or ~

LOSE

Can't the lottery come out with a game like that, and then compare the sales and prize redemption statistics with one of their w... [ More ]

Comment #4

DoubleDown — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 21:05:52 GMT

I think a lot of these are / were put in the trash.

People make mistakes when checking them..... They overlook winners.........

I know one game here in GA that unless you know how to play Texas Hold-em, you can throw away winners real easily...

I know one person that loves to buy them, but cannot play the game, so she only scratches the code off on the bottom of the ticket, then hands it to the clerk to see if it is a winner.

Comment #3

cps10 — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 19:41:15 GMT

Employee smuggling...lol

Comment #2

Jani Norman — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 19:29:07 GMT

I would just like to know where the winning tickets are being sold that can total up to this amount of money, the only thing i can find are all the 1.00 tickets and i know they will never total to that amount....

Comment #1

cps10 — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 19:21:24 GMT

This is assinine....how on earth does this much go unclaimed? If you're going to buy a ticket and just say screw it, why buy it

$17 million in Ohio Lottery scratch prizes unclaimed

Lottery Post — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 19:18:02 GMT

Ohioans won $17 million and never bothered to collect their prizes.

The Ohio Lottery says that's the amount that went unclaimed from instant scratch-off tickets during the fiscal year that ended in June. Players have about six months to redeem winning tickets, and officials say about one out of every 50 was never cashed in.

Unclaimed prize money is kept in the pot to pay off winners who do come forward.

Lottery spokeswoman Mardele Cohen says if you have a scratch-off and aren't sure w... [ More ]