Unclaimed Lottery Prizes Reach Five Million Mark

An astounding £5 million plus in unclaimed lottery prizes has been sitting at the UK National Lottery since November 2009, as no winners have come forward to claim their prizes. With huge prizes that reach well into the triple digits, this comes as a shock to many. What makes someone not claim a win, and how are winners able to lose out on such a huge windfall?

The answer is often amazingly simple – lost lottery tickets account for the biggest percentage of unclaimed prizes, while other reasons include entrants forgetting that they had gotten tickets in the first place or moving areas and forgetting about their ticket. Whatever the case, the UK National Lottery gives winners 180 days to claim their win, before the unclaimed prize gets put into the Good Causes fund, which donates unclaimed prize money to charities across the UK.

Of course in bingo, you have no risk of not claiming your prize – the online version in particular is claimed automatically, sending you notification instantly when you have had a bingo win. This ensures that you never miss out on a potentially massive prize, and means that there is always a winner. If you are a lucky online bingo winner, you will know within seconds!