Have you checked your Lotto numbers again ... just to make sure?

SO KIMBERLITES, if you or anyone you know has been in the vicinity of Louis Trichardt, or maybe Carltonville earlier this year, or if you have family or friends who live there or nearby, this Christmas may yet turn out to be “merry” or very, very festive!

You see, a few lucky, but oblivious, folk could be walking around at this very moment quite worried about bills and rising costs while their days of financial worries could actually be a thing of the past, and they don’t know it yet.

Here’s the thing, a PowerBall PLUS winning ticket of over R3.4 million, purchased in Louis Trichardt, north of Polokwane, on January 19, 2024, remains unclaimed and will expire on January 19, 2025. While another winning ticket, this time a Daily LOTTO win of R640,100, bought in Carletonville, Gauteng, on January 5, 2024, will also expire on the same date.

Now, though the odds of winning the PowerBall jackpot are around 1 in 42 million, there has to be a winner some time – and those winnings are tax-free, making it worthwhile to check your tickets.

Consider this: South Africans have yet to claim a jaw-dropping R257 million in National Lottery prizes, Ithuba has revealed.

Now imagine the Christmas, New Years and Back to School parties these “lucky” winners could enjoy, if only they’d wake up and check their tickets again.

But there’s not much time. Under National Lottery rules, all prizes must be claimed within 365 days of the draw date. Failure to do so means that the winnings are forfeited and redirected to community initiatives through the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund – which is not such a bad thing at the end of the day.

But still, winning some cash in these harsh economic times is an even “less bad” thing!

So what to do?

For those who are unsure if they have won some cash, the simplest thing to do would be to take note of the simple steps Ithuba has outlined to check and claim winnings.

Firstly, for tickets purchased at retail outlets, players can visit any retailer or Ithuba office to validate their tickets. What do you have to lose … I mean before you just toss the tickets away!

Next, those who played using digital platforms – such as banking apps, the National Lottery website, or the mobile app – these folk enjoy automatic crediting of winnings under R249,000 directly to their bank accounts or National Lottery wallets.

For larger winnings exceeding R249,000, winners are promptly notified within 24 working hours. They can then visit an Ithuba regional office to complete the secure claim process.

Meanwhile, Ithuba CEO Charmaine Mabuza gave some good advice to those who take a whirl at the Lotto or PowerBall to ensure that their winning tickets are not pilfered: She says they should write their names on the back of their tickets and store them securely.

“It’s always unfortunate when winners do not follow up on their well-deserved prizes,” Mabuza says.

She also urged players to check and compare winning numbers after each draw.

We hope that these two winners in this story wake up and check their tickets. It would be a pretty incredible surprise, don’t you think?