Watch That Expiration Date!

Every year lottery jackpots totaling billions go unclaimed. In recent years several hefty lottery jackpots have remained unclaimed. In 2005 a $14 million dollar jackpot went unclaimed in Illinois, in 2002 a $4.6 million dollar Massachusetts jackpot was never claimed and during the same year no one showed up to claim a $51.7 million dollar jackpot in Indiana and the list goes on and on. Most lotteries have rules that stipulate that a winning ticket must be validated by a certain date. One lottery player, Clarence Jackson Jr, found this out the hard way. In 1996 Mr. Jackson won a $5.8 million dollar Connecticut lottery jackpot. Mr. Jackson was three days late turning in the winning ticket and could not collect anything since the ticket had expired. Since then Mr. Jackson has been lobbying the Connecticut legislature to change the rules and let him collect his winnings.

States have different rules regarding the length of time a lottery ticket is valid. Connecticut, New York and New Jersey give players a year to collect lottery winnings but other states allow lottery tickets to expire in two or three months. State lottery officials across the country say they do their best to find winners who may have forgotten a winning ticket. In reality lottery officials rely on local media to locate missing winners and some states place old west style 'wanted' posters at lottery retailers.

In Mr. Jackson's case local news reports of the unclaimed prize spurred Mr. Jackson to look through a stash of old lottery tickets. When Jackson realized he held the winning ticket for a multi million dollar jackpot it was almost midnight on a Sunday night. The next day was Columbus Day and Jackson thought it would be impossible to speak to a state official. On Tuesday Mr. Jackson found out that the ticket had expired and he would not be joining the ranks of lottery millionaires. Jackson says he did not realize that all he had to do was visit a lottery retailer to have the ticket validated on time. Jackson told local newspapers he had been distracted by caring for his sick father and running the family business.

Mr Jackson's story illustrates the importance of checking those lottery tickets. Lottery results are available in newspapers, on television and online. In some countries the sale of online lottery tickets is popular and winners are notified by email if they win. In New Zealand players can have lottery winnings directly deposited into their personal bank accounts automatically. The sale of online lottery tickets and automatic notification of winnings would go a long way towards preventing situations like Mr. Jackson's.