How Much Lotto Money Goes Unclaimed Every Year?

We are a sports betting news website but occasionally we will post odds on politics, world events and non-worldy events like When Will Humans Land on Mars? Or even Alien First Contact Odds. Today’s topic is a little more terrestrial than those topics. We were curious as to how much money goes unclaimed in the various state lottery systems in the US. It is common knowledge that state’s keep about half of the money they take in for Lottery tickets and apply it to their operating budget. But how much do they get to keep because it goes unclaimed?

In Vegas, unclaimed sportsbook and casino tickets are split between the casino and state. But, unclaimed lottery tickets are kept by the state entirely. Most lotteries have a 180 day claim period and after that your ticket is no good. For some games and in some states, the window to cash in is even smaller. In Florida for example, you have just 60 days to turn in your winning scratch offs. So, how much money is left on the table by people who fail to realize they have a winner or are too lazy to go in and cash their $2 winning ticket in time?

The Numbers

The NBC affiliate in Dallas reports that over the past 32 years, the state of Texas has kept an unclaimed $1.5B dollars. That’s billion with a B! That averages about $47M per year in unclaimed tickets. This includes a one million dollars ticket that went unclaimed last year.  Fox Business reports that $2B go unclaimed annually every year in the United States as a whole. That is a whole lot of cheddar left on the table.

Originally, most state lotteries were able to pass legislation enacting the program on the promise that proceeds would go directly to the school system. This tended to tug at the heartstrings of even the most anti-gambling members of the community. In the decades since the lottery was launched, it is understood by most people that states just end up using the money for their general fund. This basically means they can use it however they deem necessary.

In some states the lottery system actually handles their sports betting as well. In Oregon, for example, the state lottery has teemed up with Draftkings to offer sports betting to residents there. In most states, you can access to online sportsbooks of one variety or another.