You buy Euromillions tickets and play lottery to make your wildest dreams come true, but only a few lucky ones enjoy the stroke of luck. Interestingly, if you check out the list of unclaimed EuroMillions prizes on the national lottery website, quite a few of the winners never come forward to claim their reward. It obviously doesn’t make much sense, since all you have to do is get your ticket out of the pocket of your clothing, wallet, bag or from under the back of the sofa and get your money.
But there are times when your fortune walks right past you. The two apparent reasons for not claiming the prize can be lost EuroMillions tickets or the winner never really bothers checking his lottery numbers. If you don’t want this happening to you, check out the interesting information and useful guidelines below:
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Recent unclaimed EuroMillions lottery prizes
The residents of the UK have 180 days to claim their prize while other countries have slightly shorter deadlines. Currently, there are two unclaimed jackpots (£3m and £6m) and nine EuroMillions Millionaire Raffle prizes worth £1m each besides several other massive windfalls.
The biggest EuroMillions jackpot, however, that’s still unclaimed is worth £63m, from the draw that took place on 08 Jun 2012. The ticket was purchased in the Stevenage & Hitchin area. With the 180-day deadline expiring on 5 Dec 2012, the winner is still unknown. A few days back, the people of Market Square, Hitchin, were greeted by two oversized billboards, fixed on two different trucks, reading the message “Are you the lucky £63.8 million winner?” Unfortunately, nobody has said “Yes” so far.
Where do the unclaimed Euromillions lotto prizes go?
In addition to the 28% of the revenue generated from the lotto, all the unclaimed prizes go to the fund created for Good Causes. That means that the unclaimed prizes are well spent, i.e. on projects that have educational, cultural, ecological and/or social value. If you win, you obviously don’t want to give away your sum to charity, but maybe a percentage of it.
How to safeguard your Euromillions lottery prize?
The rules of the lottery clearly state that once you have purchased the ticket, you are solely responsible for the safe keeping and maintaining the ticket in good condition. Moreover, neither the company or the retailer is not responsible for stolen, damaged, destroyed or degraded tickets. Ironically, if someone else has your ticket – no matter if he picked it up from a trashcan or snatched from your hand, he will walk away with your prize unless you’ve written your name and address on the back.
To make sure you get your lottery prize, follow these steps:
- Keep your tickets at the same (safe) place every time
- Take your time to match the numbers. If you haven’t won the jackpot, just don’t throw away the ticket as there are quite a few other prizes as well
- As soon as you purchase your tickets from an offline retailer, write your name and address on its back.
- Though online tickets cost a little extra, they offer 100% guarantee that you’ll get your dough –Buy your Euromillions tickets online and you won’t lose them and nobody else can steal them.
