What Happens To The Money If A Mega Millions Or Powerball Ticket Goes Unclaimed?

As luck would have it, there is a $1 million unclaimed Mega Millions lottery ticket that is set to expire on Wednesday if the lucky winner does not come forward.

While the ticket is still up for grabs, if the person who purchased it doesn’t claim the prize, one may wonder what will happen to the winnings?

In this case, according to the lottery, the $ 1 million will go into Rhode Island’s General Fund as this is the state where the ticket was purchased on March 14, 2020, at the Season’s Corner Market in North Smithfield for the March 17, 2020 drawing.

But this isn’t always the case in every state.

Some states, such as New York, require that lottery funds go back to players as guaranteed bonus prizes or second-chance contests, while other states, such as Ohio, use the monies for dedicated purposes such as to offset education, AARP reported.

In Wisconsin, the unclaimed lottery prizes go toward property tax expenses, and in Georgia, a portion of the funds are used for gambling addiction.

Each state also has its own rules on the amount of time that it allows a player to claim Mega Millions or Powerball lottery winnings. This can range from three months to six months to a year from the date of the drawing.

In Rhode Island, where the expiring unclaimed Mega Millions ticket was purchased, lottery players have one year to claim their prize.

This is not the only instance of a lottery ticket that went unclaimed.

According to CNBC, several large jackpot winners never came forward to collect their prizes, including a 2013 ticket that was sold in Florida for $16.5 million as part of a three-way winner of a $50 million jackpot and a $77.1 million winning ticket purchased in Georgia in 2011.

But there are also a ton of smaller prizes that go unclaimed each year because tickets go unchecked or get lost.

Other state rules that differ among states include player anonymity. Some states allow players to stay anonymous as they claim their prize, while other states require winners to come forward and announce their identity to the public for the windfall they just won in the lottery.

Winning the lottery does take some luck as players of the Mega Millions have a one in 302 million chance of winning while the Powerball jackpot odds are 1 in 292 million.

Jackpot winners also have the option of taking the cash option, which is a lesser value, but it is paid in a lump sum all at once, while the estimated jackpot is paid out in annual payments over several years.

The unclaimed Mega Millions ticket sold in Rhode Island was a Quick Pick purchase that matched five numbers but not the Powerball. Players can check their tickets using the free Rhode Island Lottery mobile app on the lottery website at rilot.com/ticketchecker.

The next Mega Millions drawing is on Friday at 11 p.m. ET for an estimated jackpot of $105 million with a cash option of $71.1 million. The next Powerball drawing is slated for Wednesday at 11 p.m. ET for an estimated jackpot of $184 million with a cash option of $125.6 million.