Unclaimed Money
What happens to unclaimed money prizes from premium bonds, the National Lottery, and bookmakers?
National Lottery
With around 70% of adults regularly playing one of the National Lottery games, from Lotto to scratchcards, and spending a total of nearly £5bn a year, it's not surprising that some prizes go unclaimed.
It might be surprising however that the total amount of prizes unclaimed in 2004 was a record £100m.
While it's likely that many of the prizes are at the smallest £10 level, and probably overlooked by people checking large numbers of numbers for office syndicates and the like, this isn't always the case.
The largest unclaimed prize so far was a jackpot of over £7m, won by a punter in Belfast who never came forward to make a claim.
Unlike premium bonds, there is a time limit on lottery prizes of 180 days. If the prize isn't claimed within that time of the draw, the ticket is cancelled and the funds are added to the 'good causes' distribution fund, and this is what eventually happened in the Belfast case.
Bookmakers
The exact amount of winnings not picked up from bookmakers isn't known, with estimates varying wildly from £10m to £500m a year. These unclaimed prizes, known as 'sleepers' within the bookmaking industry, are usually the result of lost betting slips or simple ignorance of the winnings.
It has traditionally been difficult for bookmakers to identify punters who are due winnings, or so the bookmakers say, but with increasing use of technology rather than paper slips this is expected to improve. There is no time limit on claiming prizes at the moment, with the funds held indefinitely by the bookies, but the goverqnment is considering introducing rules to force sleepers to be distributed to charities after a certain period, as is the case with the National Lottery.
Home - General Finance
