ALMOST NINETEEN MILLION Euro worth of National Lottery prizes went unclaimed last year but less than 1% of the unclaimed prize fund was returned to players in the form of special draws and top-up prizes.

New figures made available by the Office of the Regulator of the National Lottery show a total of €18,993,483 was forfeited by lottery prize winners during 2019 as a result of failing to collect their winnings within 90 days.

However, just €187,400 was given back to players through extra prizes last year.

Over €90m in unclaimed prizes has now been returned to Premier Lotteries Ireland (PLI) since it took over the licence to operate the National Lottery in November 2014.

Under the terms of its licence PLI is allowed to retain expired unclaimed prizes for marketing lottery products with discretionary use of the fund for special draws and top-up or additional prizes.

In contrast, unclaimed prizes in the UK lottery go towards good causes if unclaimed after 180 days, while the vast bulk of unclaimed prizes was returned to players in the form of larger jackpots before the National Lottery was privatised six years ago.

A PLI spokesperson said the company operated the National Lottery in accordance with its licence which was monitored by an independent regulator.

“When making decisions about the best way to use the unclaimed prize money, PLI considers its obligations under the licence and the best way to promote the National Lottery to maximise revenue for good causes,” the spokesperson said.

However, the outgoing chairman of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee, Seán Fleming, has called for the next Government to ask the Attorney General to examine if there was any review mechanism for the 20-year licence awarded to PLI in 2014.

Licence due to expire

PLI is a consortium between An Post, An Post Pensions Fund and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, which also owns Camelot, the UK lottery operator.

It paid €405m for the licence which is due to expire in 2034.

“Maybe nothing can be done but it is worth checking. It appears clear that civil servants had not factored in the scale of unclaimed prizes in negotiating the terms of the licence and setting a value on it,” Fleming said.

According to PLI, scratch card games accounted for €9.7m in unclaimed prizes last year with €9.3m associated with draw based games.

The largest unclaimed prize in 2019 was a €500,000 jackpot from the Euromillions Plus draw on October 1, which was sold in a Mace store in Kilbarrack Shopping Centre in Dublin.

The PLI spokesperson said the company, under the terms of its licence, carried out local and national media campaigns as well as raising awareness through its online channels and stores nationwide to identify the winners of unclaimed top tier prizes.

Funds vary year to year

The annual value of unclaimed prize funds has ranged between €16m and €19m in recent years.

The biggest unclaimed prize on record was a jackpot €4.3m in June 2001, when the winning ticket was sold in Coolock.

Although the level of unclaimed prize funds can vary from year to year, it is expected to decline with the growth of National Lottery games played online.

Unclaimed prizes as a proportion of total ticket sales decreased from 2.4% in 2018 to 2.1% last year.

Due to the introduction of restrictions to stop the spread of the Covid-19 virus, the National Lottery had extended the period of time to claim prizes to 180 days for all draw based games between 9 January and 5 July.

PLI had resisted providing the full annual amount of unclaimed prizes until directed to release such details by the Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) last year.

The company has disputed the view of both the lottery regulator and the OIC that using unclaimed prize funds for marketing purposes represented “a benefit-in-kind” and that the scale of unclaimed prizes was directly related to the €405m it paid for the licence.

However, the OIC noted that PLI acknowledged that the treatment of unclaimed prizes was one of many relevant issues it considered in determining the size of its bid for the licence.

Earlier this year, PLI lost its long-running row with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform over who had a claim on €16m which PLI “inherited” from the previous licence holder following a recommendation by the lottery regulator.

Last week, PLI reported that its operating profits for 2019 increased by 75% to €8.9m.

Over the same period turnover rose by 10% to €884.5m, while the amount raised for good causes was also up 10% to €251.6m.