$25,000 a Year for Life Expires Thursday — And $2 Billion in Lottery Prizes Go Unclaimed Every Year

Somewhere in Brunswick County, North Carolina, someone is walking around with a piece of paper worth $25,000 a year for the rest of their life. They bought a Lucky for Life ticket at E-Z Way Grocery on North Howe Street in Southport on December 27. They matched five white balls. And they have three days left to claim it.

The deadline is 5 PM on Thursday, June 25 at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. After that, the prize is gone. Forever.

"Search everywhere you keep your tickets and double-check any you have to see if you hold the winning ticket," NC Education Lottery CEO Mark Michalko said last week. "We hope that whoever purchased this ticket comes forward to claim the prize soon."

If they don't? They'll join a staggeringly long list of winners who never knew they won.

The Scale of the Problem Is Insane

This isn't a quirky one-off story. It's an epidemic.

Approximately $2 billion in US lottery prizes go unclaimed every single year. That's not a typo. Two billion dollars — won, printed on tickets, held in someone's hands — that simply expire because no one ever checks.

In Minnesota alone, $16 million in lottery prizes went unclaimed in 2025. Right now, the Minnesota Lottery is publicly begging five different winners to come forward:

• Two $50,000 Minnesota Millionaire Raffle tickets from the January 1, 2026 drawing — still unclaimed nearly six months later
• Three $50,000 Powerball tickets sold between December 2025 and June 3, 2026 — all still sitting in someone's junk drawer, wallet, or glove compartment

That's $250,000 in confirmed prizes, in one state, that nobody has bothered to collect. Under Minnesota's rules, players have one year from the drawing date. After that, Powerball and Mega Millions money gets returned to participating states. Scratch game money goes to the state's General Fund.

Either way, it doesn't go to you.

Why Do People Leave Money on the Table?

The reasons are predictable — and preventable:

They don't check their tickets. This is by far the biggest one. Someone buys a Powerball ticket on the way home from work, sticks it on the fridge, and never scans it. The numbers matched on two or three balls — worth $7 or $100 — but they never looked. Multiply that across 200 million tickets sold per month and the unclaimed pile adds up fast.

They check the jackpot and stop. When Mega Millions hits $467 million (like tomorrow night's drawing) or Powerball climbs to $312 million (tonight), players check whether they matched all six numbers. If they didn't hit the jackpot, they toss the ticket. But Mega Millions has nine prize tiers. Match just the Mega Ball? That's $2. Match three white balls? $10. Match four plus the Mega Ball? $10,000. With the Megaplier, a Match 5 can pay $5 million. You might be throwing away a five-figure winner because you only checked for the top prize.

They lose the physical ticket. Tickets get washed in pockets. They fall behind car seats. They end up in recycling bins. Physical tickets are bearer instruments — without the ticket itself, most states won't pay the prize. No ticket, no money. Period.

They don't know the deadline. Every state has a different claim period. North Carolina gives you 180 days. Minnesota gives you one year. Some states offer as few as 90 days for scratch-offs. If you don't know your state's rules, you can't protect yourself.

Tonight's Jackpots Are Building — Don't Let Them Become Tomorrow's Unclaimed Statistics

The irony of writing about unclaimed prizes while $779 million in combined jackpots is up for grabs this week isn't lost on us:

• Powerball (tonight, June 22): $312 million (cash option ~$141 million)
• Mega Millions (tomorrow, June 23): $467 million (cash option ~$211 million)

Those headline numbers are exciting. But the secondary prizes are where the unclaimed money really piles up. If you buy a ticket for tonight's Powerball drawing, you're playing for nine different prize levels — not just the jackpot. And every single one of those prizes has an expiration date.

Before you buy, check how both games rate on the LuckMaker Score at luckmaker3000.com/games. We rate all 98 games across 25 US states and 9 international markets on a 0-100 scale, factoring in odds, prize structures, and real-time jackpot data.

4 Things You Should Do Right Now

1. Check every ticket you currently have. Not just the ones from this week — every ticket from the last 90 to 365 days, depending on your state. Use your state lottery app to scan them, or check the latest results at luckmaker3000.com/results. If you've been tossing tickets after checking only the jackpot numbers, you might have missed a secondary prize.

2. Know your state's claim deadline. Here's a rough guide: most states give 180 days to 1 year for draw games, and 90 days to 1 year for scratch-offs. California? 180 days. Texas? 180 days. New York? 1 year. Florida? 60 days for scratch-offs, 180 for draws. Don't assume — look it up.

3. Use the Ticket Vault. This is exactly why we built it. LuckMaker's Ticket Vault lets you store your ticket information digitally so you never lose track of what you've played, when it was purchased, and when the claim deadline hits. Physical tickets get lost. Digital records don't.

4. Run the numbers before you decide. If you do win — even a secondary prize — know what you're taking home. A $10,000 Mega Millions prize isn't $10,000 after taxes. Federal withholding alone takes 24% on prizes over $5,000. State taxes vary wildly. Use our Lottery Tax Calculator to get the real number.

The Saddest Part

The North Carolina Lucky for Life winner in Southport didn't just miss a one-time payout. They missed $25,000 every single year for the rest of their life. If the winner is 35 years old, that could be worth over $1 million in total payouts. If they're 25, it's potentially $1.5 million.

And in three days, it vanishes.

Someone in Southport, North Carolina: check your December tickets. Check the drawer by your front door. Check the visor in your car. Check the pockets of your winter coat.

The rest of us: check everything. Grab your numbers from the Lucky Number Generator for tonight's Powerball or tomorrow's Mega Millions. And when you get your ticket, scan it. Every time. No exceptions.

Because the only thing worse than losing the lottery is winning it — and never knowing.