Posted on: December 7, 2022, 11:55h.
Last updated on: December 7, 2022, 11:55h.
Most people play the lottery in hopes of winning some money, even if it’s not the top prize, running to collect as soon as they find out they won. However, someone in the UK is sitting on a ticket worth £7.4 million (US$9 million), but doesn’t seem too interested in cashing it in.
Camelot, the operator of the UK National Lottery, for now, has been waiting since June 18 for a lottery winner to come forward. On that day, someone in Wolverhampton took down the Lotto’s jackpot, but still hasn’t claimed it.
Time is running out quickly. In accordance with lottery procedures, a winner has six months to turn up or the money is lost forever. This means the June 18 Lotto winner only has a week left before it’s too late.
Sitting On A Fortune
The exact total of the jackpot was £7,440,150.00 (US$9.08 million). That’s enough to buy about 18 Ferrari Stradales, or maybe just 100 tickets to see Taylor Swift in concert, depending on what Ticketmaster is up to.
If no one claims the winnings, they’ll go back into the National Lottery, where it should be used for various charity programs and internal marketing expenses. This past June, Camelot reported that, including money from unclaimed prizes, it spent £1.91 billion (US$2.33 billion) on worthy causes in its 2022 fiscal year.
In some instances, winners don’t place claims because they never realize they won. For others, buying a ticket is a matter of habit, after which they simply forget that they did.
There are also instances in the history of the lottery where winners intentionally failed to turn in a ticket. After realizing they won, they tossed the ticket aside, worried about how their lives might change if they accepted the money.
Still, there are other times when life gets in the way. Some people buy their tickets, stick them in a wallet or purse and never get around to checking them. They may eventually, but the amount of money the National Lottery has taken back from winning draws shows that there are more than a few that don’t.
That wasn’t the case for the EuroMillions winner, who picked up almost £55 million (US$67 million) in the EuroMillions this past summer. It only took a couple of days for the anonymous person to make a mad dash for the nearest National Lottery office to confirm the prize.
Lottery players in the UK had a good run in November. There were several multimillion-pound prizes awarded, including another £7.4 million jackpot, one for £3.8 million (US$4.64 million) and one for £12.8 million (US$15.64 million).
A Lottery And A Baby
An expecting mother and lottery player in North Carolina recently had fortune smile on her twice at the same time. Not only did the 28-year-old housekeeper give birth to a healthy daughter on November 9, but she also won a Powerball draw the same day.
The North Carolina Lottery posted a notice on its website about the good fortune, with the new mother, Brenda Gomez Hernandez, delivering her baby only hours before she learned of her $100,000 win. Using the birthdays of her other children as the lottery numbers, she can honestly say that all of her children brought her good luck.
After she gives the state and federal government their share of the money, the new mother and new lottery winner will take home around $65,000. Hernandez plans on using most of the money to pay down the mortgage on her home.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)