Chances are high that if someone wins the anticipated Powerball prize of $1.8 billion this Saturday, they will cash in their ticket. However, history shows that this is not guaranteed.
Over the years, several jackpot-winning tickets have gone unclaimed, and if one were to tally the myriad smaller winnings that also remain unclaimed—ranging from a few dollars to millions—the total could easily surpass $1 billion annually. Victor Matheson, an economics professor at the College of the Holy Cross and a recognized expert on gambling and lotteries, cites an annual report from the New York Lottery Commission indicating that around 1% of lottery revenue consists of prizes that go unclaimed.
Matheson notes, “The amount of unclaimed prizes is relatively consistent nationwide,” establishing a worrying trend across the United States lottery systems. Given the sheer volume of tickets sold each year, this 1% figure translates into enormous sums—over $1 billion in unclaimed prizes.
An illustrative case of this phenomenon occurred last year when a winning lottery ticket worth $138 million was sold at a Walmart Supercenter in Huber Heights, Ohio, on July 3, 2024. Unfortunately, it went unclaimed, with the payout structured over 20 years or a lump sum option of $65.8 million.
In the past 25 years, eight Mega Millions or Powerball jackpots have gone unclaimed, amounting to a collective $646 million, or approximately $821 million when adjusted for inflation. This tally represents just 1.5% of all 520 jackpots claimed during the same timeframe, with most unclaimed prizes being smaller amounts.
Many lottery players likely fail to check their tickets after noticing there was no jackpot winner or discovering that the winning ticket was sold at a distant location. Matheson suggests that a significant number of players may be unaware that they are leaving potential winnings unclaimed, having stashed their tickets in pockets or junk drawers.
Prizes for these lottery games can be as modest as $4 for matching just the Powerball number, but players who match five regular numbers but miss the Powerball or Mega Ball can walk away with substantial winnings—$2 million for Mega Millions and between $1 million to $2 million for Powerball, depending on whether the player opted for the “power play” feature.
Besides these large awards, modest prizes range from $4 to $500 in Powerball and from $10 to $800 in Mega Millions, along with various mid-tier prizes up to six figures. Different states impose varying deadlines for claiming winnings, and Powerball maintains a list of unclaimed prizes exceeding $50,000 along with the time left for winners to cash in.
One notable example included a $50,000 winning ticket sold in March in Covington, Louisiana, which recently expired without a claim.
Interestingly, most money spent on lotteries is not on jackpot games. Matheson underscores that about 70% of the $110 billion in ticket sales is attributed to instant scratch-off games. Although he lacks definitive statistics, he suspects that relatively few winning scratch-off tickets go uncashed. “There’s simply less time between purchase and knowing whether one has won, reducing the chance for tickets to be lost or forgotten,” he explained.
