While millions of Spaniards dream of changing their life thanks to a blow of luck, every year more than 40 million euros in prizes remain without all the draws organized by lotteries and bets of the state … and for which the Treasury has entered, in the last decade, up to 400 million euros.
This is what follows from the information collected by the newspaper of The Objectivethrough the transparency portal. It shows that the number of unpopulated tickets remains stable -about two million annually -but the money that swells public coffers has been increasing: from 35.4 million in 2015 to 46 million in 2024.
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The raffle that has contributed the most to these figures is the popular Christmas fat, with 400,000 euros per tenth, followed by the first prize of El Niño (200,000 euros) and the main prize of the ordinary draws (150,000 euros).
More; Even if it is surprising, it goes more often than we imagine. Only in 2022, almost 6.3 million awards were not charged, between the National Lottery and the rest of the games such as La Primitiva, Bonoloto, Euromillones, among others. According to the annual report of the institution, in 2022 6,148 million euros were distributed in prizes, but 58.78 million (about 1 %) corresponds to tenths or bets that expired and nobody claimed.
Why don’t the lottery winners present themselves?
Here, the raffle in which the Spaniards play most is the extraordinary Christmas, which issues 180 million tenths, of 20 euros each. According to data from the Public Entity of the SELAE, the State Lotteries and State Betting, in 2022 were without paying 19.79 million euros that corresponded to 422,695 different tenths.
The vast majority were reintegrates of 20 euros (318,705 tenths); To another 103,852 they touched 100 euros (pederes/approaches). But there were also five tenths of the first prize without charging (of 400,000 euros each), another five of the second (125,000 euros each) and five more of the fourth awards.
And why don’t winners claim their prize? Well, according to lots and bets of the State, this is due to several reasons to each more diverse. Good since buyers forget to verify if they won, to many others who don’t even know that they were awarded.
At the same time, there are also awarded people who end up losing their ticket or transplain the tenths for a jacket change, and even some end up in the trash.
The deadline for charging a tenth or awarded lottery ticket is 3 months for all draws
It is worth mentioning that the legal deadline to be able to collect an award -winning lottery ticket is 90 calendar days, which are counted from the day following the draw. This period can only be extended when there is a legal dispute between several people for the ownership of the tenth – in which case the expiration is suspended until there is a final sentence – or if the last day of the term was festive.
In turn, it is worth mentioning that, still from lucky, the awards of more than 40,000 euros are subject to the Treasury. This, corresponding to a special tax that lotías and bets of the State retains immediately before making the payment.
In addition, in the event that the winner has pending debts, either with the Tax Agency or Social Security, the Treasury also has the power to seize part or even the entire award to cover them.