Rachel answers Mike’s question about checking old lottery tickets, and whether they are likely to have expired.
Q. Mike
I have often seen articles where people are directed to sites to check for long lost bank accounts, superannuation, etc, however where does one check the results of old lottery tickets?
I have been told that there is no expiry date for lottery winners, so how does one check the result of old tickets. I have some that go back as far as 1989. I have just kept them as I had no way of checking them.
A. Although it is possible that some tickets do not expire, most lottery tickets do. The length of time each ticket has varies from lottery to lottery, e.g. Powerball, OzLotto and LotteryWest. Tickets will often expire after one year or 18 months, however, some will last for longer. To find out how long your lottery tickets will last, you can visit the website for the specific lottery you entered, and read the ‘rules’ or ‘terms and conditions’ section.
To check your unexpired tickets, you can try NSW lotteries website, which has a function for looking up old numbers.
You can also try the ‘Check my ticket’ function on the Tatts website. It will really depend on which lottery you entered, and who runs the competition.
