Some €90m in lottery prizes never claimed

WHILE MANY dream of winning the lottery, it seems some people don’t even realise it when their numbers come up.

Some €90 million in lottery prizes and jackpots have gone unclaimed over the past five years, according to figures obtained from the National Lottery.

Last year alone nearly €17 million in prizes was left uncollected in the accounts of the National Lottery.

Among the unclaimed windfalls in 2011 was a €250,000 Lotto Plus 2 prize, sold in Gorey, Co Wexford, in April.

There were also several smaller, albeit significant, amounts including two unclaimed Lotto Match 5 + bonus prizes for €25,000 each.

A National Lottery spokeswoman said the total amount of unclaimed prize money is usually about 2 per cent of total sales or turnover.

Under the rules, winners have a 90-day period in which to collect their prizes after the announced end of the game after which time they forfeit any right to the prize.

Unclaimed prize money is used by the National Lottery to promote various games and draws.

A €1 million “top-up” added to the recent May Bank Holiday draw was financed by unclaimed prize money.

The largest unclaimed prize on record was for a €3.4 million jackpot from June 30th, 2001. The winning ticket was sold in Coolock, Dublin 5. Despite a campaign to find the winner on 2FM’s Gerry Ryan Show, no-one ever came forward.

Currently the unclaimed prize pot stands at €15.2 million, which equates to 2 per cent of annual turnover.

“The balance of unclaimed prizes will fluctuate depending on the various prize promotions being done and the timing of end of game announcements for scratch card games,” the spokeswoman said.

In 2008, some €21 million in prizes or 2.5 per cent of turnover was left unclaimed, which remains the largest annual amount on record.

Lottery sales in Ireland have fallen sharply in the recession, with total revenue from sales of tickets and scratch cards dropping from €840 million in 2008 to €761 million last year.

The percentage of unclaimed prize money has remained relatively constant at between 2 and 2.5 per cent of turnover.

A few years ago, a winning jackpot ticket sold in Galway caused a frantic search after it was rumoured to have been lost by a courting couple on a mountain walk.

People in Mayo and Galway searched rubbish tips for weeks. However, the multimillion-euro jackpot was eventually collected by an entirely different group of people.

In the UK, the hunt is currently on to find the owner of a €1.2 million EuroMillions ticket, sold in East Sussex last November.

Under the lottery rules in Britain, winners have 180 days to present the winning ticket which gives the owner of this particular lucky ticket until 11pm on May 23rd to come forward.