According to Ohio lottery officials, if you find yourself in such a situation, your incredible luck just ran out.
“We always remind players if they win to sign the back of the ticket and keep it in a safe place,” said the Ohio Lottery’s Danielle Frizzi-Babb. “You cannot claim a prize without the ticket.”
Even a photo of the winning ticket with proof of purchase won’t do.
“You must have the physical ticket to claim a prize,” Frizzi-Babb said.
Thankfully, this scenario is rare and most winners collect their prizes without issue.
However, an auto-pick ticket, which matched all five drawing numbers plus the Powerball, was purchased at the Huber Heights Walmart in July. By the ticket’s Dec. 30 expiration date, the $138 million prize had yet to be claimed.
It was the first time in the nearly 15-year history of the Ohio Powerball lottery and in the more than 50-year history of the Ohio Lottery Commission that a jackpot has gone unclaimed.
It’s unclear who purchased the winning ticket or why the anonymous almost-millionaire never came forward for their jackpot, and the Ohio Lottery Commission doesn’t have any systems in place that would assist.
“We have no way of knowing why a winner does not claim a prize,” Frizzi-Babb said. “We can assume they did not know they won or lost the ticket, but there’s no way to know.”
Ohio winners have 180 days to cash in a winning ticket before the unclaimed funds go to the unclaimed prize fund, which becomes part of lottery profit.
“In Ohio, 100% of Ohio Lottery profit goes to the Lottery Profit Education Fund to help support education in the state,” Frizzi-Babb said.
These funds are ultimately distributed to schools as part of state funding for education.
The odds of winning the top Powerball lottery jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million. For comparison, you have a better chance of getting struck by lightning, with yearly odds of less than 1 in 1 million.
But that doesn’t stop millions of hopeful players from trying their luck annually.
Carl Knife of Troy regularly buys scratch-off lottery tickets. He plays Powerball occasionally, but usually only when the jackpot exceeds $500 million.
“I’m not even sure why because when the jackpot is so high, my odds are likely worse,” Knife laughed.
Having himself won a jackpot of $10,000 in September, Knife is sympathetic toward the mysterious Powerball winner from Huber Heights, who was due to receive more than 13,000 times that amount.
“I hope they lost the ticket before they knew the winning numbers or something because that could eat at them for the rest of their lives; at least, I know it would if it were me,” Knife said.
“If I knew that I won and lost the ticket, I would never be able to get over it,” he continued. “And I’d definitely never play the lottery again; that would be it for me.”
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