$800,000 lottery ticket now worthless

Comment #19

LckyLary — Thu, 03 May 2007 00:51:44 GMT

Few things:

1. People play yards of tickets sometimes, a lot of them QP. THIS IS ALSO WHY I HATE QP BECAUSE YOU DON'T REMEMBER WHAT YOU PLAYED!

2. People get really busy sometimes or distracted. I won and had Jury Duty next day so it was 2 weeks later that I finally checked the ticket. And that was manual pick.

3. It gets windy sometimes in April.

4. Not everyone is a Lottery Post reader. Those who are not may not have been watching the News the 2 days right before the deadline when... [ More ]

Comment #18

KyMystikal — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 08:55:25 GMT

I don't know if it is true or not, but I have heard stories of people going thru a divorce and not wanting the other half to get any so they hold onto the ticket until the divorce is finalized before claiming the prize.

Comment #17

Badger — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 10:55:04 GMT

Personally I figure someone lost the ticket. It's the only thing that makes sense to me, because it completely boggles my mind how anyone could buy a jp ticket and not care enough to follow up and see what, if anything, they won.

To me, it's a totally stupid act to just throw money at the lottery if you really aren't even interested enough in the game to follow upon it. If its of such little importance to a person, why even bother making an effort to buy a ticket

Comment #16

KY Floyd — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 05:54:06 GMT

Exactly what do you suppose the retailer should sue for? Following the rules? I've never quite understood why retailers are paid anything other than a modest processing fee for winning tickets (and such a fee should be paid to the retailer that pays the winning ticket rather than the retailer that sold it), but the rules are what the rules are.

As far as giving the prize to a different player, why should they benefit just because somebody else lost out? If there were two winners, then the oth... [ More ]

Comment #15

st.germain — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 02:10:05 GMT

In another story...in new jersey ..a 19 million dollar jackpot will be forfeited in 24 hours if not claimed...but to note is the fact that the store that sold the ticket did get the commission for selling the ticket. Is something wrong here with s.carolina. ? Shouldn't all the lotteries have the same rules when considering commissions and or claim periods

Comment #14

st.germain — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 02:00:22 GMT

This is really upsetting!..The store owner should sue the lottery commission for his 1%.

Or 8,000 dollars for selling that ticket. Or better yet...the remaining money should be forfeited to the other winner who also picked the same numbers that night. As he was the only one to come forward. So, after the 180 days expired...it seems logical that the other guy should have gotten the whole kaboodle!

IS THERE A LAWYER IN THE HOUSE????????? LOL

Comment #13

Guru101 — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 01:39:38 GMT

What would really suck(and at the same time be funny) is if this person ends up finding it and then checks the numbers, and ends up trying to claim it not knowing he/she had 180 days to claim it and it's now expired.

Comment #12

LckyLary — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 23:17:24 GMT

Shiny Disco Balls...Shiny Disco Balls...

I don't agree with the 1 in 60 thing. Young players certainly don't have 1 in 60. Even considering death probability, this is assuming that all of them are holding many unchecked jackpot tickets, and also assuming that when they kick the bucket their heirs are in such grief that they never recover enough to check whether Uncle Warbux's Pick-6 won anything. Far more likely the ticket was dropped while the person was shuffling their change or lost in a... [ More ]

Comment #11

Kidzmom — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 18:43:02 GMT

Now, would be the time for this particular person to find his/her ticket and.....................after realizing they were the ones holding the winning ticket

Comment #10

hsvscubaski — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 17:18:37 GMT

The State gets to keep the money and doesn't pay the retailer!!!!!!!!!! That is bad

Comment #9

justxploring — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 16:33:32 GMT

KY Floyd writes: FWIW, that could be one reason to not sign your ticket, depending on who might cash it in. If you sign it and then die it becomes part of your estate, so after losing the income tax somebody could also lose the estate tax on it.

That's a good point. I thought of that too when I was posting earlier. So this is another reason to call an attorney as soon as possible. I always check my tickets right away, but anything can happen, not just between the time you purchase... [ More ]

Comment #8

pacattack05 — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 16:20:24 GMT

I would have

Comment #7

KY Floyd — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 16:00:31 GMT

justxploring's idea may not explain this particular incident, but death has to account for some of the unclaimed tickets. Figuring that anyone who buys a ticket is at least 18 and has a life expectancy of 78, 1 of every 60 players will die this year. If the typical winner waits 2 weeks between finding out they've won and filing their claim about 1 out of every 1500 winners will die before cashing in the ticket. For the ones who don't tell anybody about their win, there's a fair chance that the... [ More ]

Comment #6

KyMystikal — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 15:22:05 GMT

Another thingis it could have been a QP and the person just lost the ticket. I played 999 midday for this whole week in Ky but somehow I got the ticket mixed in with some other tickets which were for only 1 draw and threw it out. I now hope 999 doesn't fall this week because the Garbage truck has come and gone and I am not going out to play it again until next week. So far so good, 3 draws down and 3 left to go. This is the 1st time I did this. Once before my wife didn't check my pants and wash... [ More ]

Comment #5

justxploring — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 15:09:42 GMT

I doubt if they will ever find out. Maybe they're not even alive. I'm guessing that one of the reasons we read about these unclaimed tickets is purely statistics. I don't know exactly how many people bought tickets for that draw, but take any heavily populated city like Chicago, Miami, New York, Los Angeles, etc. Get the paper and read how many people die every week.

There are a lot of threads about anonymity and not telling a soul you won. I've already told my sister, in case of emer... [ More ]

Comment #4

Elizabeth03 — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 13:51:39 GMT

I would be pretty upset or disappointed if I lost or had a winning lottery ticket and waited too long to cash it in.

I want to do things with my life, that you need money in order to accomplish it

Comment #3

spy153 — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 13:35:41 GMT

I'm sure they had a very good reason for not cashing it in.

Comment #2

DoubleDown — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 12:53:31 GMT

If they do find out..............

Comment #1

HiYoSilver — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 11:00:13 GMT

Amen to the last comment. I'd beat myself for the rest of my life if I found out I missed large jackpot like that.

$800,000 lottery ticket now worthless

Lottery Post — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 10:31:30 GMT

Winning Powerball ticket sold; buyer misses deadline to collect prize

A little more than six months ago, somebody bought a Powerball ticket at the Quick Mart at the corner of Cherry Road and Heckle Boulevard.

Somebody, somewhere, in the lint trap of a clothes dryer, or maybe on the floorboards of a pickup truck, has a scrap of paper that was worth $800,000.

That scrap is now worthless.

The window for claiming prizes in South Carolina is 180 days.

The unclaimed prize is the largest... [ More ]