Lottery winners keep missing deadlines. Is it time for a better system?

Imagine winning $200,000 in the lottery and never knowing it. Maybe the ticket ends up in a kitchen drawer. Maybe you toss it in your glove compartment or leave it in a wallet you haven't used in months. By the time you find it again, the deadline has passed, and your $200,000 ticket is worthless. This happens more often than you might think.

The Texas Lottery recently spent weeks looking for the owner of a $200,000 Texas Two Step jackpot ticket sold at an H-E-B in Floresville. The ticket matched all four white balls and the Bonus Ball in the March 9, 2026, drawing, but it was still unclaimed as the September 5 deadline approached. Texas gives players 180 days to claim draw-game prizes.

Michigan has a similar situation. A Fantasy 5 ticket purchased in Covert won a $197,766 jackpot in the September 26, 2025, drawing. Nearly a year later, nobody had claimed it, and the September 25, 2026, deadline passed with no one claiming it. New Jersey even told players this summer to check drawers, closets, and old pants pockets as three unclaimed prizes moved closer to their one-year expiration dates.

There has to be a better way to do this. Lottery technology has come a long way. Some states let you buy tickets online. Apps can scan tickets and tell you whether you've won. Lotteries can send jackpot alerts straight to your phone. Yet when someone buys a winning paper ticket and forgets about it, the solution is still basically: Everybody check your pockets.

Put the deadline where players can see it

Let's start with something simple. Put the expiration date on the ticket. Don't bury it in the rules or make players figure out whether their state gives them 180 days, six months, or a year. Print the actual date somewhere obvious.

CLAIM PRIZE BY: SEPTEMBER 5, 2026. That's it. Put it near the barcode or somewhere else players are likely to see it when checking their ticket.

There are some complications. A draw ticket's expiration date may depend on the drawing date instead of when the ticket was purchased. Advance plays could cover several drawings. Scratch tickets can remain on sale for different lengths of time.

But these aren't impossible problems to solve. Tickets already show drawing dates, numbers, barcodes, and other information. For advance plays, lotteries could print the final applicable claim date. If an exact expiration date isn't available when a scratch ticket is purchased, print a clear message telling players where they can check it.

That's the easy fix. Technology gives lotteries a lot more options.

Let players register paper tickets

What if you could buy a regular paper lottery ticket and then choose to connect it to your lottery app? You'd buy your ticket exactly the same way you do now. Then, if you wanted to, you could scan its barcode or QR code into the official lottery app.

It would still be a paper ticket. You wouldn't have to buy it online. The app would simply remember it. If the ticket wins, you could get a notification: Your ticket won $500.

If you don't claim it, another notification could arrive later: Your prize expires in 30 days.

And then: Your winning ticket expires in seven days.

We don't really have that full system in the United States right now, but we already have a lot of the technology needed to make it work. The California Lottery app lets players scan Scratchers and draw-game tickets to see if they've won and how much the ticket is worth.

New Jersey has similar technology, and some prizes can even be submitted through a mobile claim. Louisiana takes things a little further. Its app has a "Checked Tickets" section that keeps track of tickets a player has already scanned. For multi-draw tickets, the status can update after future drawings without the player scanning the ticket again. The app can also send notifications.

So we're already pretty close. If an app can remember a ticket, update its status, and send alerts to your phone, why couldn't it tell you that your winning ticket is about to expire?

South Korea is already doing more

We don't have to guess what a more automated system might look like. South Korea introduced a service in August 2026 aimed at reducing unclaimed lottery prizes. Players who buy a paper Lotto ticket can scan its QR code into the Payco mobile app. Once the ticket is registered, the system can tell them if they've won.

But there's another feature that really stands out. If the registered prize still hasn't been collected when the payment deadline arrives, the winnings can automatically be deposited into the player's Payco account.

Compare that with what often happens in the United States. A lottery puts out a press release. Local news outlets run stories about the missing winner. Everyone is told to check their glove compartments and junk drawers. Then everyone waits.

South Korea's approach creates a direct connection between the ticket and the person who chose to register it. That exact system may not work everywhere in the U.S. State laws, claim requirements, and payment systems vary.

But the basic idea makes sense. If a player wants to connect a paper ticket to an account, why not give them that option?

Get retailers involved

Not everyone wants another app. Plenty of people still want to walk into a store, pay cash, grab their tickets, and leave. They should be able to keep doing that.

Retailers could still help. When a big prize goes unclaimed, lotteries usually know exactly where the winning ticket was sold. That's why we see news releases identifying the convenience store, gas station, or supermarket where someone bought it.

Put that information in the store. A lottery terminal or ticket checker could display something like: UNCLAIMED $200,000 WINNER SOLD HERE — DEADLINE SEPTEMBER 5.

Imagine seeing that every time you went back to buy another ticket. Someone might visit the same store every Wednesday for months without remembering the old ticket sitting in their car. Seeing a big sign saying the store sold an unclaimed $200,000 winner might finally get them to look for it.

Don't forget about privacy

There is one big issue with ticket registration: privacy.

Some lottery players don't want an account. They don't want their purchases tracked or their paper tickets connected to personal information. That's completely reasonable. Registration should be optional.

Want reminders? Register your ticket. Want to pay cash and remain anonymous? Keep playing the way you always have.

There would also have to be clear rules about what registration means. Does scanning a ticket into an account establish ownership? What if you give the ticket to someone else? What happens if it's stolen? Does the person holding the physical ticket still have the final claim to the prize?

Those questions would need answers before a registration system is rolled out. But lotteries already deal with account security, identity verification, and online purchases. This wouldn't be starting from scratch.

Claim deadlines aren't the problem

None of this means winning tickets should be valid forever. Claim deadlines serve a purpose. Lotteries need to close their books, games end, and unclaimed money has to be handled according to state law.

Six months or a year can be plenty of time to claim a prize. The problem is how little we sometimes do during that time to make sure the winner knows they won.

There's a big difference between someone getting several reminders and deciding not to claim a prize and someone simply never realizing the winning ticket was sitting in a drawer.

Winning once should be enough

Winning a major lottery prize is already incredibly difficult. Finding out you won shouldn't require another lucky break.

Lotteries can often tell us exactly where the ticket was sold, when it was purchased, how much it won, and when the prize will expire. What they usually can't do is reach the person who bought it.

That made sense when a lottery ticket was just a piece of paper. It makes less sense now.

Put clear expiration information on tickets. Give players the option to register paper tickets through lottery apps. Send reminders when registered prizes haven't been claimed. Alert customers when a retailer sells a major unclaimed winner. And look at systems like South Korea's to see what else might work.

Keep the anonymous paper ticket for anyone who wants it. Nobody needs to be forced online, and claim deadlines don't need to disappear.

The goal is much simpler: If someone wins a legitimate lottery prize, give them a better chance of actually collecting it. Telling everyone to check their old pants pockets might make for a fun headline. It shouldn't be our best plan for finding a missing $200,000 winner.

Enjoy playing the lottery, and please remember to play responsibly.