Some of you apparently appreciate the new feature on our promotion winners list that indicates when prizes have been claimed. We know this because we're getting a lot of questions about the Million-Dollar Raffle - people would like to know if all the prizes have been claimed so they can discard their tickets.
There is a big difference between a second-chance promotion like "Holiday in the Driveway" and a game like the Million-Dollar Raffle, and it has to do with the ticket. When you purchase a game, like Lotto or the Million-Dollar Raffle, the ticket is a bearer's instrument. The ticket itself has a value associated with it and it has a specific time-frame in which it can be claimed, which is 180 days following a drawing or the game ending date.
For a second-chance promotion such as "Holiday in the Driveway" or "Deal or No Deal," the ticket(s) are a requirement for entry into the promotion. The "entry" itself hold the value of the prize. If you enter promotions on-line through MyLottery, we require that winners produce the actual tickets they used to enter the promotion so that we can validate their "entry," and we give them two weeks to turn them in. We already have tickets mailed or accepted at a Lottery drop-off location to verify they are a qualified "entry." If an "entry" is not qualified or the required tickets not produced, we can continue drawing until all the prizes are given away.
The key difference is game or promotion. When you play a game, the ticket you buy holds the value. Any prizes that go unclaimed are returned to the state. That's why you should always check your tickets closely.