Washington's Last Vaccine Lottery Is Tuesday: Here's What To Know

OLYMPIA, WA — Washington's last of five "Shot of a Lifetime" vaccine lottery drawings is planned for Tuesday, with more cash and prizes up for grabs than ever.

Lottery officials said nearly 100 smaller prizes went unclaimed in the fourth drawing last month, including concert tickets for Climate Pledge Arena, Xboxes and more. Those prizes will be in the rotation again for the final drawing, boosting the final prize cache above 350. Other unclaimed items include Seahawks and Mariners tickets, Nintendo Switch consoles, Google prize packages and camping gift cards.

One lucky winner will be awarded $1 million, equaling the four previous cash prizes combined.

Washington's first drawing for vaccinated adults took place on June 8, as the state made a final push to reopen before June 30. While the Evergreen State fell just short of reaching its vaccination target early, Gov. Jay Inslee said last week that researchers found the lottery promotion successfully increased immunization rates.

According to the Washington Lottery, the number of adults listed in the state immunization database — where the random winners are pulled from — grew from 3,904,156 on June 8 to 4,058,453 on June 29. An updated tally will be available after Tuesday's drawing. On Monday, state health officials said Washington was within striking distance of its goal to reach 70 percent of residents 16 and older with at least one dose.

Any adult resident who was vaccinated in the state by Sunday night will be eligible to win in the final drawing, excluding those who have claimed previous prizes. The winning numbers are picked from the millions assigned to each person in the Department of Health's statewide Immunization Information System. After the drawing, the lottery works with health officials to match the numbers with their corresponding names and contact information.

Winners have up to 72 hours to claim each prize after the lottery's first attempt to contact them. The lottery also draws an alternate winner for the large cash prize, in case the original winner fails to claim the prize in time. Tuesday's drawing is scheduled to take place around 8 a.m., and the winners will start hearing from the state by Wednesday.

Lottery officials have a few tips to make sure people do not miss out on their winnings:

• Officials calling from the lottery will most often have a 253 area code, but some phones will have a 564 number — the state's newest area code. Official prize emails will originate only from an address ending in "@doh.wa.gov."
• Winners have 72 hours to claim their prize, and the clock starts ticking as soon as the first call attempt happens. As the deadline nears, officials will also attempt to text winners, and send an e-mail if their address is on file.
• Washingtonians seeking help verifying that their vaccination records are in the state's database can call the COVID-19 hotline at 1-833-VAX-HELP.
• Beware of scammers: The state received some reports of scammers posing as lottery officials. The Attorney General's office shared several tips to avoid scammers Monday and encourages anyone suspicious of a call, text, or e-mail to contact the Washington State Lottery at 360-810-2888 to verify authenticity.