BRITS have been urged to check their lottery tickets as more than £8m sits unclaimed.
There are still twelve massive prizes with the National Lottery and EuroMillions yet to be claimed – despite lucky winners across the country matching the winning numbers.
The total amount of prize money still to be paid out for 2023 amounts to a massive £8,025,663.
However, Camelot only keeps records for sizeable prize money worth at least £50,000 so the real figure is likely to be much larger.
Six of the prizes come from the EuroMillions UK Millionaire Maker draws.
The jackpots were won in Haringey, London, Chorley in Lancashire, North Lanarkshire in Scotland, Bolton in Greater Manchester and Northumberland in the North East.
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The sixth prize – won in St Helens, Merseyside – is just days from being lost, after being won in the July 28 draw this year.
They have until January 24, 2024, to claim their winnings before it goes into the kitty to support good causes.
All the prizes are still active as any potential lottery winner has 180 days to claim their prize.
The winner in Haringey has until February 18, 2024 to claim their prize.
IN IT TO WIN IT
Although not quite in the million pound stakes there are still some substantial winnings that have yet to be claimed from draws this year.
A EuroMillions player from Northampton is missing out on £220,132.50 having bought a ticket for the draw on October 27.
They managed to successfully match five main balls plus one Lucky Star.
The winning numbers were 29, 33, 35, 48, 49 with the Lucky Stars being 3 and 8.
Someone from Doncaster is yet to claim their Set for Life prize money of £10,000 every month for a whole year.
They managed to match five balls from the draw on September 18 with the lucky numbers being 1, 3, 11, 28, 43 and the life ball being 9.
The winner has until March 11, 2024 to make their claim.
The EuroMillions draw on November 3 also proved to be lucky for a player in Edinburgh who managed to match five balls and one star number, potentially netting them a not insignificant £84,616,60.
The winning balls were 8, 21, 31, 39, 47 with the lucky stars being 5 and 9.
Any cash that isn’t claimed after a total of 180 days from a game played in the UK goes to the National Lottery’s Good Causes fund instead.
If the deadline is missed, the ticket officially expires and the owner will no longer be able to take their winnings.
This will usually then go on to help fund things like sport programmes or local community buildings or other projects.
One of the biggest lottery winners in the UK this year came in June when a EuroMillions player scooped a whopping £111.7m.
The winner claimed 12th place on The National Lottery Rich List of the biggest jackpot winners ever.
It came after an anonymous ticket-holder scooped a whopping £46million in the May 5 draw.
The record for the biggest EuroMillions win remains the £195million, won by an anonymous Brit in 2022.
Robert Johnson is a UK-based business writer specializing in finance and entrepreneurship. With an eye for market trends and a keen interest in the corporate world, he offers readers valuable insights into business developments.