Didn’t check your lotto tickets? No problem, your millions will find you

If you ever bought a lotto ticket and forgot to check if you could be South Africa’s next millionaire, don’t worry – Ithuba will find you.

Ithuba Holdings says all lotto tickets are valid for 365 days from the date of the draw.

“All tickets that are not validated or claimed within that period will automatically expire,” Ithuba Holdings said in a statement.

If by some chance your millions miss you, unclaimed winnings from expired tickets are then transferred to the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund, for reallocation to good causes.

“From time to time, a small portion of unclaimed and expired funds are used to support the popular Guaranteed Jackpot Programme,” Ithuba further explained.

“Ithuba encourage players to keep their tickets safe and claim their winnings before tickets expire.”

Write your ID number at the back of your tickets

Ithuba highly recommends that players write their name and ID number on the back of
tickets at the time of purchase so that the company can easily identify the owner for bigger claims.

And if you missed it, don’t worry, Ithuba will find you.

“We embark on a proactive search for players that win larger amounts over R500 000
through the following means:

• We issue a media statement notifying the public of a large amount that is waiting to be claimed.
• We advertise the unclaimed prizes in the store where the ticket was sold.
• We also advertise in the local vicinity and region, as well as nationally on social media platforms and the National Lottery draw shows.
• All unclaimed prizes are monitored monthly and all unclaimed prizes above R500 000 are advertised for a 6 month period prior to the ticket expiring.

Some people keep their winning ticket for months

Ithuba says there have been many cases of winners coming forward to claim winning tickets for several
months after the draw date.

“We have also observed that there are some players that prefer to keep their tickets for up to a year and present them for claiming towards the holidays.”

But, banking your ticket is not recommended because you run the risk of losing your ticket or the ticket expires before they can claim their loot.

Online players that use the National Lottery website, mobile or banking apps, have the added convenience of automated prize payments.

All winning amounts for online players of up to R250 000 can be automatically paid into their e-wallets and or bank accounts depending upon the maximum limits payable by our banking partners.

They are also notified directly of any larger winnings and can visit their nearest Ithuba office to claim larger prize amounts.

No one won Tuesday’s whopping R90 million Powerball Plus jackpot, so the amount has rolled over for Friday’s (8 April 2022) draw. An estimated R94 million is up for grabs.

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