It appeared like the $174 thousand prize would go unclaimed and the money would return to the lottery, to be used for good causes. The winner didn’t rush to claim the money and for three months other players were wondering what happened to the winner. Although it was not imminent for the prize to expire, some believed that the money will remain unclaimed since so much time has passed already. It is not certain whether the winner is a man or a woman, since the lottery has a strict policy of protecting the identity of the winners, unless they choose otherwise.
Fairfield area lottery officials searched for winner
The authorities knew that the winner purchased the ticket from a Super Serv Chevron mini-mart and when the prize went unclaimed, reached out. It is now customary for lottery representatives to act in this manner, after millions of dollars were lost in each of the previous years. While they don’t necessarily go to waste, but are directed to one of the good causes sponsored by the lottery, it is an unfortunate event for the winners. It seems like the campaigns are very effective though, with many winners learning about their good fortune thanks to the lotteries diligence.
In this particular case, the amount was not spectacular which only aggravated the situation because the publicity surrounding the unclaimed ticket was reduced. On a local level though, lottery representatives never lost hope and their results paid off in the end, with the winner stepping forward to claim the money. Lottery officials urge players to check their tickets after each draw, keep them safe but still in plain sight and always sign them because otherwise virtually anyone could claim them.
Why do so many tickets go unclaimed?
This is the main questions that both the officials and the players are trying to explain and there are a couple of answers that stand out. What happens well too often is that players put their tickets somewhere safe and completely forget about them. Since most of them are not actually counting on the lottery to change their lives, they don’t even bother to check the numbers the next day and so the problem persists.
Another powerful explanation is that players intentionally postpone the moment they claim the prize and only step forward after a few months. Some try to avoid publicity, other only asks for the rightful cash when they have a clear plan about what to do with them. Either way, the media gets restless well before the deadline and the publicity makes it seem like more tickets go unclaimed than they actually do. Regardless of reasons, players are always encouraged not to delay the moment they claim the prize too much and think about how to spend the money after they cash it.
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About Joe Knapp
Hello, my name is Joe and you can find me on Google+. I`m lucky enough to be a part of LotteryCrunch.com’s fantastic team and an editor of LotteryPros.com at the same time. Every day we are looking for the best lottery draws, attractive offers, interesting events, latest news, lucky winners’ stories and hot promotions in order to make a life of the lottery players easier. Serving you is our constant priority!
