What happens if you buy an e-ticket online and die before you claim it?Prev Topic Next Topic

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Think

Marquette, MI
United States
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Apr 7, 2023, 5:16 pm

Michigan had a story on its website today about a woman who won $1,000,000 on powerball with a subscription online but didn't login or check her account for 6 weeks.

This lead me to consider what would have happened had she died. There would be no ticket for the family to find and her family probably wouldn't know about her online account.

Is this just one more reason the states are encouraging online subscriptions?

Not only don't they have a retailer to pay a big bonus to when someone hits the jackpot but if someone hit a big second prize and dies the state would probably wind up getting to keep the prize as there is no ticket to find and it's likely that the family wouldn't necessarily know about the online account or even if they did know about it they probably wouldn't know how to access it.

In 6 weeks they could have canceled the phone number and the address wouldn't be valid so even if the state mailed something it may not make it on time to whoever is handling the estate.

After reading that story it now has me wondering just how good of an idea it is to buy tickets online.
Stack47

Kentucky
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Apr 7, 2023, 5:59 pm

The lottery knows which store sold the winning ticket and might have store video, but don't know the identity of the ticket owner. With Online play they know the identity of the winner so there will be no "the winning ticket expires next week" notices. If they are not contacted with in a reasonable amount of time the lottery would try to contact the account holder.

Don't know how it's done in other states, but in my state winnings under $100,000 are credited to my account. Don't know how long an account would be inactive until the lottery contacts the owner. Just a guess, but for a $1 million prize or any prize over $100K, they might try to make contact within a couple months.

"When will we ever learn?"
cottoneyedjoe

United States
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Apr 7, 2023, 6:06 pm

Good topic. I suppose the same thing happens often with physical tickets purchased by people living alone. What can us old geezers and people who live alone do to prevent such a calamity? Maybe every time we buy a ticket we text our relatives?

"Hey Sue I bought an inch stack of Powerball tickets. If I die before the drawing, they are in the second drawer to the left of the dishwasher."

Plan for the worst, hope for the best.
MartyMcNuts

Australia
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May 24, 2019
84 Posts
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Apr 7, 2023, 6:35 pm

Just make sure that someone you trust knows about your online account (and where your instructions are on how to access it) or make note of it in your will that when you die, so and so gets access to your online account.
chrislot

Canada
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Apr 7, 2023, 7:18 pm

Excellent question, I too wondered on that (Canada here)

I don't see why when offering subscriptions, they don't allow for:-

1) a 2nd name in case someone dies, with 'other contact information on the subscription' etc

2) a record of who else to contact in regards to 'group purchases' etc

The above has kept me from doing subscriptions, especially without not having a WILL

If they pay out to "Estate' and not the Government, what if say a single person has no next of kin, estate etc

Great question 'THINK'
KY Floyd

NY
United States
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October 16, 2005
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Apr 7, 2023, 9:25 pm

I'm sure the details vary by state, but I'm also sure that each state has a FAQ that probably covers that, even if it's not directly about dying. In NY prizes of less than $600 are credited to your account, and other non-jackpot prizes are paid automatically by check. Those prizes are therefore very definitely yours, so there's no expiration date and if you die the money becomes part of your estate. People who win a jackpot "will be notified by an official Lottery representative." They obviously won't be notifying you if you're dead, but "official Lottery representative" sounds like more than a simple email that they'll just mark as being sent, so I'm sure they'd reach somebody. I expect the jackpot prize will have the usual expiration period because you (or your legal representative) will need to go through the normal claim process.

Whether you win a jackpot or have $50 in your account, the ball is in your court to have a will and an executor to take care of a bunch of stuff that needs to be done if you die.
Stack47

Kentucky
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Apr 7, 2023, 11:41 pm

Found the story and she had a logical reason for not checking her account in six weeks.

“Since I have a subscription and my tickets are automatically purchased, I didn’t log on to my account for a while. It wasn’t until six weeks after I’d won that I logged into my account and saw a $1 million prize pending."

"When will we ever learn?"
Raven62

25

New Jersey
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Apr 7, 2023, 11:55 pm

“I always play the same sets of numbers and I use the subscription feature so that I don’t miss a drawing,” said Eileen, of Northville. “I saw an email from the Lottery informing me I’d won a prize, but it didn’t say how much I’d won so I assumed it was a few dollars."

“Since I have a subscription and my tickets are automatically purchased, I didn’t log on to my account for a while. It wasn’t until six weeks after I’d won that I logged into my account and saw a $1 million prize pending. It was such an awesome feeling! I called my kids right away to tell them the good news.”

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grwurston

100

Same #'s. Different games.

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Apr 11, 2023, 11:46 pm

What happens if you buy an e-ticket online and die before you claim it?

You are out of
Stat$talker

700 light yrs West of Milky Way Galaxy's Center
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Apr 12, 2023, 3:42 pm

Quote: Originally posted by grwurston on Apr 11, 2023
What happens if you buy an e-ticket online and die before you claim it?

You are out of
Dollybody42

Bklyn
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October 2, 2020
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Apr 23, 2023, 10:31 pm

Just don't try to find out🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I am a winner I always win☝️🥳🙏❤️