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JWBlue

San Diego, CA
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Sep 12, 2010, 10:19 pm

What other explanation is there?

Why do they have to expire in 6 months? A 1 million dollar powerball ticket just expired.

I found a couple of tickets worth $20.00 in a hidden pocket in my jacket that expired a a month before I found them. What is the explanation of why a ticket can expire in one year instead of six months?
jackpotismine

Kunming
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Sep 12, 2010, 10:25 pm

Quote: Originally posted by JWBlue on Sep 12, 2010
What other explanation is there?

Why do they have to expire in 6 months? A 1 million dollar powerball ticket just expired.

I found a couple of tickets worth $20.00 in a hidden pocket in my jacket that expired a a month before I found them. What is the explanation of why a ticket can expire in one year instead of six months?

Those are the rules. As long as they tell you ahead of time what the rules are, when you do play, it's up to you to keep track of your tickets. There doesn't have to be an explanation quite frankly.

I believe in Occam's razor:

The Simplest Answer is Usually Correct.
iGlenn

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Sep 12, 2010, 10:53 pm

Quote: Originally posted by jackpotismine on Sep 12, 2010
Those are the rules. As long as they tell you ahead of time what the rules are, when you do play, it's up to you to keep track of your tickets. There doesn't have to be an explanation quite frankly.

Yup, those are the rules. Sounds fair to me...
markp1950

Milwaukee, WI
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Sep 12, 2010, 11:10 pm

Eventually you have to clear the books. I believe Illinois gives you a year......

Long enough.

MarkP
lottobrain

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Sep 12, 2010, 11:37 pm

Quote: Originally posted by JWBlue on Sep 12, 2010
What other explanation is there?

Why do they have to expire in 6 months? A 1 million dollar powerball ticket just expired.

I found a couple of tickets worth $20.00 in a hidden pocket in my jacket that expired a a month before I found them. What is the explanation of why a ticket can expire in one year instead of six months?

I never could understand why people buy lottery tickets that could be worth millions and just put them away and forget about them. Personally, when I buy my Power ball, Mega Millions, Hot Lotto, Delaware Multi win tickets, I want to know what the numbers are as soon as the drawing is over. I carefully put the tickets in a safe place so that I don't wash them away in the laundry or let them blow out the window of the car, etc.

I see stories where these things happen...other stories where the person let a clerk at the store check the ticket for them and then the clerk tells them their jackpot ticket is not a winner and gives them back some losing ticket he has been keeping just for this occasion. A story from many years ago in the late 80s had a PA lotto jackpot expiring in a couple of weeks. They ran news stories on TV and in the newspapers about the ticket, but no one had come forward as the deadline approached. A computer technician for the lottery hatched a plan with a clerk he knew in a store where he would hack into the lottery computer and have it print out a winning lottery ticket for that drawing at this friend's store. The friend took the ticket to the lottery office to cash. Things didn't look right to the lottery, but they issued the first check of the annuity. Meanwhile, a man happened across the story in the newspaper about the winning ticket and where it was purchased at and what time. He then remembered that he and his wife had gone to the area where that store was and that he had found a $20 on the ground. He used it to buy lotto tickets. He then remembered that he had put them in a dresser drawer in the bedroom and had forgotten all about them. He found the tickets and checked them and sure enough...he had the actual winning ticket. When he and his wife showed up at the lottery office, the lottery knew they had their case made for convicting the other two guys for fraud. They both got long jail sentences. Pretty stupid plan since the lottery uses special paper at different stores to print the tickets just to catch anyone trying to alter a ticket. Also they knew something was wrong because the store where these guys printed the ticket naturally was not the store that sold the real ticket.
Coin Toss

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Sep 13, 2010, 6:02 pm

Do lottery tickets expire so the lottery commission can deny paying prizes?

We need another Lottery Urban Legends thread!

Those who run the lotteries love it when players look for consistency in something that's designed not to have any. So many systems, so many theories, so few jackpot winners.

There is one and only one 'proven' system, and that is to book the action. No matter the game, let the players pick their own losers.
pumpi76

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August 29, 2005
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Sep 14, 2010, 1:31 am

Quote: Originally posted by JWBlue on Sep 12, 2010
What other explanation is there?

Why do they have to expire in 6 months? A 1 million dollar powerball ticket just expired.

I found a couple of tickets worth $20.00 in a hidden pocket in my jacket that expired a a month before I found them. What is the explanation of why a ticket can expire in one year instead of six months?

i agree with you...i asked myself that before...

i think they might worry that people will try to fasificate/copycat them...

Something else i suspect..i dont know if the lottery can alter what plays but it gives me the sensation that if you can beat their game and you are someone with radical ideas or beliefs, they will cut you off and choose anoter winners...Just like in sponsonships and stuff....

1 reason why it will expire in 6 months is because it could be that the money they are paying is from a bank or something earning interests....

i care more about winning tickets expering than i care about cash vs. annuity...

The Forex trades: 1.6 Trillion dollars EVERY day, that´s more than the GDP of the Carribbean Central America, COMBINED. Enough to feed every crook out there for centuries...To all Geniuses & Powers Countries of the World the Planet needs breakthroughs in all Medicine, Veterinary, Biology related fields, Psychology, Population Psychology/Sociology..They need to genetically ingeneer new plants species/types to give more variety of plants and thus have more resources for combating diseases¨
eddessaknight

LAS VEGAS
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November 22, 2006
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Sep 14, 2010, 4:39 pm

Quote: Originally posted by JWBlue on Sep 12, 2010
What other explanation is there?

Why do they have to expire in 6 months? A 1 million dollar powerball ticket just expired.

I found a couple of tickets worth $20.00 in a hidden pocket in my jacket that expired a a month before I found them. What is the explanation of why a ticket can expire in one year instead of six months?

JW Blue, at al-

ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE

Historically speaking, the more money in any speculative endevour the more opportunistic schemes are pursued by those inclined!

When the famed Brooklyn bankrobber, Willy Sutton was asked by his Prison warden " why did he was a repeatedly rob banks?" Wily said "Warden, that's where the money is"

Think about it; there have cheaters & thieves caught in all forms of and all levels of gambling .....gov't operations are no exception

EddessaKnight
ttech10

Texas
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June 5, 2010
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Sep 14, 2010, 6:52 pm

I don't think the question is 'why do tickets expire' but rather 'why don't people keep track of their tickets'.

I treat every ticket I get as a winner and I'm sure to put it in a place that I won't forget about it. The tickets expiring is definitely not a problem. I'm responsible enough not to chunk the tickets in the back of the closet to let them get buried under whatever.
sully16

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Ringleader

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Sep 14, 2010, 10:27 pm

In Mich, when a ticket expires , it does not go into the school fund, it goes to the general fund and they can waste it anyway they want.
pumpi76

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Sep 14, 2010, 10:43 pm

Quote: Originally posted by sully16 on Sep 14, 2010
In Mich, when a ticket expires , it does not go into the school fund, it goes to the general fund and they can waste it anyway they want.

yeah it should go to something important some kind of fund or help or something...You know how many funds there are where they need money...Someone without a kidney may need something or someone/or an organization who has people with a terrible disease or ailment, can get the help...help someone quit smoking or off of drugs...SO MANY, helps it can go to...

like someone who just won: $40 Million dollars is going to miss $100,000 [i heard is thrown back into the jackpot]....

not long ago read of rich company donating: $100 Million dollars to SOMETHING STUPID...i was like you are going to tell me DONT YOU HAVE ANY HEART...TOTALLY made me mad....it happened like 4 days ago..

The Forex trades: 1.6 Trillion dollars EVERY day, that´s more than the GDP of the Carribbean Central America, COMBINED. Enough to feed every crook out there for centuries...To all Geniuses & Powers Countries of the World the Planet needs breakthroughs in all Medicine, Veterinary, Biology related fields, Psychology, Population Psychology/Sociology..They need to genetically ingeneer new plants species/types to give more variety of plants and thus have more resources for combating diseases¨
jrosina

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Sep 14, 2010, 11:15 pm

Quote: Originally posted by JWBlue on Sep 12, 2010
What other explanation is there?

Why do they have to expire in 6 months? A 1 million dollar powerball ticket just expired.

I found a couple of tickets worth $20.00 in a hidden pocket in my jacket that expired a a month before I found them. What is the explanation of why a ticket can expire in one year instead of six months?

What is this????!!! Kindergarden Adults?LOL...LOL, Special-Ed adults???!!!... you buy a ticket expecting to win!!! I believe at least that's the reason most of us buy Lottery Tickets...how in tha! What tha???!!

Why in the H, double L, you are not checking your tickets the night of, or at least the next day to see if you won???!!! !

forget what "they" say about you. What you say about you?...

Now, does it count??

*Jr$ina
Raven62

25

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Sep 14, 2010, 11:38 pm

Quote: Originally posted by JWBlue on Sep 12, 2010
What other explanation is there?

Why do they have to expire in 6 months? A 1 million dollar powerball ticket just expired.

I found a couple of tickets worth $20.00 in a hidden pocket in my jacket that expired a a month before I found them. What is the explanation of why a ticket can expire in one year instead of six months?

No! They expire because Lottery Players don't Check Their Tickets in a Timely Manner!

A mind once stretched by a new idea never returns to its original dimensions!

Catch-22: A dilemma or difficult circumstance from which there is no escape because of mutually conflicting or dependent conditions.

Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges: When the republic is at its most corrupt the laws are most numerous.

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pumpi76

Honduras
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Sep 15, 2010, 12:12 am

i dont know what´s the percentage, but what is it: 25% of the USA population is elderly...not insulting anyone but not 100% mental capacity....Thus, 25% of lottery players are elderly or senile people...

The Forex trades: 1.6 Trillion dollars EVERY day, that´s more than the GDP of the Carribbean Central America, COMBINED. Enough to feed every crook out there for centuries...To all Geniuses & Powers Countries of the World the Planet needs breakthroughs in all Medicine, Veterinary, Biology related fields, Psychology, Population Psychology/Sociology..They need to genetically ingeneer new plants species/types to give more variety of plants and thus have more resources for combating diseases¨
JWBlue

San Diego, CA
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Sep 15, 2010, 2:22 am

To all the bashers. I had checked the tickets and unfortunately mispaced them.

This was not a case of not checking the tickets.

One year is fair.