Unclaimed Lottery Prizes

Unclaimed lottery prizes in the UK total millions of pounds. For all the UK lottery games you have 180 days in which to claim your prize starting from the date of the particular draw.

Any prize winnings that remain unclaimed after such time are added to the fund for good causes.

Camelot, the UK’s lottery operators, go to great lengths to try and marry up the larger unclaimed Lotto and EuroMillions prizes with the winning ticket holders. They advertise the fact that there is an unclaimed prize in the area where the ticket was purchased, increasing the coverage as the 180 day deadline approaches. It’s not unusual for the operators to receive 100′s of claims when one of the larger prizes go unclaimed from players who lost their tickets, even if they didn’t know the numbers they selected on those tickets. If claimants can match the time that they say they bought the ticket along with the retailer the ticket was purchased through, then Camelot would usually launch an investigation. Valid claims can often be confirmed by using CCTV footage. If a ticket was purchased through a Post Office then it’s likely that the purchaser would be caught on screen. If an investigation turns up a likely valid claimant but not one that they can be sure of beyond any doubt, Camelot would wait until the 180 day claim period had expired just to make sure that no-one else claims the prize. If they haven’t then on occasion, the operators have paid out the prize.

There’s another reason why winnings can remain unclaimed. Players are often in shock when they discover they have won a life changing amount of money. It’s not uncommon for some players to wait days or even weeks before making a claim whilst they let it ‘sink in’.

There are two ways in which you can make sure that you don’t lose out on a lottery prize.

Buy your tickets online. Online ticket winners are notified automatically within hours of the draw taking place. There hasn’t yet been an online ticket winner who hasn’t received their winnings.

Get your tickets from Free National lottery Tickets. As the saying goes, ‘the best things in life are free’. As a member of FreeNationalLotteryTickets you can get free tickets to every single one of the UK’s Lotto and EuroMillions draws, and if your numbers come up, then we will automatically contact you so that you don’t miss out on your prize.

Signing up to our free Lottery Results Email Service will greatly reduce the chances of missing out on a winning ticket. With our busy lives it’s easy to forget to check your ticket even if you haven’t lost it.

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