Have any old lottery tickets that you forgot to confirm? Feeling extra lucky this week? Well, it may be time to get checking after it was recently revealed a mystery winner is set to score a life-changing $4.8-million prize!
The ‘Set for Life’ Division 1 ticket was bought at Thistle Kiosk in Woden, ACT in April 2021. Despite being more than three years on from its draw date, lottery officials assure it isn’t too late to claim it!
“We’ve had winners come forward after months or even years,” The Lott spokesperson, Anna Hobdell, tells New Idea.
“A Mount Hutton woman only found out about her $1 million prize nearly two years after the draw. If her ticket had been registered, she could have gotten the exciting news much sooner.”
The news comes as The Lott is urgently calling for two mystery Division 1 winners to come forward. Both of their claim periods are set to end within the next two months.
The first of the lucky tickets is a Queensland Saturday Gold Lotto ticket worth nearly $370,000. It was purchased in Capalaba in November 2017.
The second is a New South Wales Saturday Lotto ticket worth over $1 million purchased in December 2018 in Sydney. Lottery officials say there are currently 16 unclaimed prizes across Australia worth more than $12 million. Of the unclaimed prizes, eight are in New South Wales, six in Queensland and two in the ACT.
Under current rules, ACT and New South Wales players have six years from the draw date to claim their prize directly from The Lott, while Queenslanders have seven years.
However winners in Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and the Northern Territory only have 12 months to claim their prize before it is transferred to the relevant state government body.
Anna adds: “There’s one guaranteed way to ensure players are always notified when they’ve won a prize and that’s to register tickets to The Lott Members Club or online account – and keep those details up-to-date.”
The Lott says any unclaimed prize money can be used for bonus draws or as donations to not-for-profit organisations.
The unclaimed winning ticket was bought at an ACT newsagency.
