The lottery has ways of knowing that they have winners, but sometimes winners don’t really know they have won. Not everyone is able to watch the drawing the night they buy their tickets, but rely on other sources to find these numbers, and match them on their cards, at least a day after. Some winners even wait sometime later to claim their prize. They do this because they would like to talk to an accountant or financial advisor before making that claim. Of course waiting may be natural, but not too long or they may miss out. That could be true for two Colorado Lotto winners.
The winners didn’t take a week to talk to financial advisors, but haven’t claimed their prize yet either. The lotto we are talking about, in one case, is June 8ths lotto drawing. This was a drawing where a $4.58 million prize was up for the win, and someone has won. Maybe they don’t know it, as Tom Cargal, Spokesman for the Colorado Lottery claimed. Some may forget to check, but the department knows there is a winner.
Someone in Arvada bought this winning ticket. The winning numbers were: 2-6-7-9-20-21. The deadline for claiming that prize is Dec. 5. This would be the time to check through the house, and garbage in case that might be you.
The second person, in the other case, is yet to come forward and claim their ticket. This Colorado winner won the Oct. 19 Powerball drawing $340 million jackpot. This ticket sold in Littleton matched five of the six winning Powerball numbers: 7-21-43-44-49 but not the last number, 29. So a little more than 800,000 of that was won, after taxes and split between other winners. That winner has until April 17th to claim the prize.
Unclaimed jackpots aren’t something new. Lottery officials say this sometimes happens because of split tickets, or several separate winners. Since 1989 more than $30 million in 13 jackpots haven’t been claimed at all. Winners have 180 days, in Colorado, to claim their prizes. If not claimed or claimed too late, the cash value of the jackpot about 50% of the claim is put into the year-end distribution pool, which is split between Great Outdoors Colorado, Conservation Trust Fund and Colorado State Parks. Last year $249 million in prizes were paid out, and $103.7 million went to GOCO, Conservation Trust and state parks. |
