What Happens To Unclaimed Lottery Jackpots In CA

LOS ANGELES, CA — A $200 million lottery jackpot is hours from expiring unclaimed in Southern California, and that would make Golden State public schools the big winner.

If the owner of the $197.5 million ticket sold at an Encino gas station last year doesn't come forward by Saturday, all that money will go to the school system. While it would be a record haul, smaller jackpots and lottery winnings go unclaimed all the time, raising millions for education.

Every year, there are tens of millions of dollars that go unclaimed among all the lotteries, California Lottery Spokesperson Carolyn Becker told Patch. Over $1 billion in the entire 40-year history of the CA Lottery has gone unclaimed, Becker said.

“While it’s a shame for potential winners to see any winning ticket expire, it does give a helpful boost to California public schools. All unclaimed prize money winds up helping support public education, so we can still feel good about it at the end of the day,” Becker said.

Since its inception in 1985, the California Lottery has generated more than $46 billion for California's public schools. The State Controller's Office determines how much lottery funds are dispersed to public education institutions based on the average daily attendance for school districts.

The amount of unclaimed winnings varies wildly by year, Becker said. For example, in the fiscal year 2019-2020 $75.4 million went unclaimed while $19.5 million went unclaimed the next fiscal year 2020-2021.

The largest unclaimed jackpot in state history is also from the San Fernando Valley. In 2018, someone in Chatsworth became a record-setting loser when a $63 million SuperLotto Plus jackpot went unclaimed.

A Los Angeles man Brandy Milliner, sued the state, alleging he bought the winning ticket. However, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Yvette Palazuelos dismissed Milliner’s lawsuit based on evidence provided by the state that Milliner’s ticket wasn’t the real deal.

Milliner was so close to claiming the jackpot. According to his lawsuit, he even received a letter from the state congratulating him on his winning. But it was followed by another letter claiming his ticket was “too damaged to be reconstructed.” The letter cited a section of the California Lottery Act that explained the commission was unable to process Milliner’s claim, the suit stated.

He tried to force the lottery commission to fork over the money claiming it had “interfered” with his prize by withholding the ticket, refusing to return it and refusing to award him the grand prize.

According to lottery officials, it’s not uncommon for scammers to try to claim a jackpot with a hoax ticket. What is unusual in this case is that a major jackpot would go unclaimed.

“It’s an odd situation,” then California Lottery Deputy Director Russ Lopez told Patch when the deadline to claim the record-setting unclaimed ticket expired.

He said no credible winner ever came forward.

“We pay out 60 million a week on average, so we have a lot of claims,” he said. “There were so many hoaxes, so many photoshopped tickets, so many claims. Anybody can make a claim. The bottom line is: is it truthful? Did they purchase ticket? Is that the true original ticket with the true original numbers? We conduct a full and thorough investigation on all major jackpot wins.”

According to lottery, the mystery winner has two options. They can bring the ticket and the corresponding claim form to one of the California Lottery's nine offices across the state or they can fill out the necessary paperwork and mail it to the California Lottery headquarters in Sacramento on or before Dec. 7.

Meanwhile, the current Mega Millions jackpot continues to grow as there were no top-prize winning tickets sold for Tuesday night's draw. The estimated grand prize for Friday's draw is $579 million.

• CA Gas Station Sells 2 Jackpot-Winning Mega Millions Tickets
• $2.04 Billion Jackpot Winner Comes Forward in California
• Lottery Winner Becomes Record-Setting Loser
• $26M Lotto Ticket Destroyed In Laundry, Would-Be Winner Claims
• Meet The Valley Man Who Keeps Winning The Lottery
• 'Rude' Man Pushes LA Woman Into $10 Million Lottery Jackpot
• Excuse Me, Did You Leave $63 Million on the Table in Chatsworth?
• How A Lottery Jackpot Winner Became A Bank Robber
• Lottery Winner Surprised to Discover $1K Ticket Is Worth $1.3 Million
• 'It's The Lottery Curse,' Says Jackpot Winner Turned Bank Robber
• $1.77 Billion Winning Powerball Ticket Sold In CA

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed this report.