NZ Lotto winner cuts it fine
Thursday April 22nd 2010If you were to win almost $400,000 on the lottery, you would probably be on the phone right away trying to register your claim. This is what many lottery players say, but in reality it is amazing how many prizes go unclaimed and a NZ Lotto player almost missed their chance too. The news has just come to us that this NZ Lotto winner cuts it fine by making his claim just one day before his win of $391,581 was due to expire, after leaving his winning ticket sat in drawer for around a year.
The NZ Lotto chief executive states that this is the first time that a claim for a major prize has been left with just one day to go. This is actually quite a surprising concept considering the amount of appeals for winners to come forward and prizes that are left unclaimed in other world lottery games.
The NZ Lotto winner has chosen not to be identified but due to a stressful year, he had completely forgotten to check his ticket until he came across it at the weekend.
The largest ever NZ Lotto prize that went unclaimed was for $3 million but this was as far back as 2003. However, if there is anything to be learnt about this latest news then it can only be when you buy lottery tickets, keep them in a safe place and check them regularly. In fact, if you have any unchecked tickets around the house now, it may be a good time to get those that haven’t already expired, checked right away. You could be sitting on a major lottery win and not even realise.