Why Lotto Winner Takes Time To Claim Their Rewards, What's The Point?

[Hispo]

Here in our country, if you hit the jackpot, you are given one year to claim your rewards. There is also a security feature on the back of the lotto ticket where you can write your name and sign it, so you are the only person who can claim the jackpot prize, and you have a year to claim it.

I read that some lottery winners take weeks or even months to claim their rewards, but what's the point?

What if you keep it and will surprise your family after a month, but you have an accident and you get into a coma?

Or you let it know to your family, but you decide that you will claim it after a month but some members of the family spread the news will this put your family and yourself in jeopardy

Do you think it's a good idea to claim your winnings a day after hitting the jackpot or wait a few weeks?

How about you? When do you think is the right time to claim your winnings?

Actually, believe it or not, I find it to be a very good idea to give people time before they can show up with their winning ticket and retrieve their money. Keep in mind that winning a life changing amount of money provoke people to act recklessly and make then to waste much of the money they won in unnecessary stuff, it is something which is common to happen to the so calle "new rich" in west countries. So giving those months for the person to appear and claim the money makes them to approach their new economical status with a colder head and better expectations on what to do with it.

For example, if someone won the lottery and claimed the money in the next day, they could feel tempted to buy a ferrari, go for alcohol, gambling, spend  money in women and joining social clubs to hang out with other with other rich people, that is a patch which could easily take the person back to the starting line he came from (economically speaking). On the other hand, having up to a year to receive the money, he may meditated about what he wants and would end up going to college in first world country, starting his own business of importation, etc.

If you look on the internet about stories of the new rich getting back to poverty quickly, you will see what I mean.

Cheers.

[Renampun]

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Do you think it's a good idea to claim your winnings a day after hitting the jackpot or wait a few weeks?

How about you? When do you think is the right time to claim your winnings?

lottery event owners will certainly need several days to give the winning money to the winner because usually the funds they have are stored elsewhere, they don't have a lot of cash at one time, they have to collect it and also verify the winner, whether he is really fair or commit cheating while the lottery event is in progress, in essence the reasons used by the lottery organizers to delay the time for awarding prizes, are very acceptable.

[Potato Chips]

@everyone

I did not post this article right away when I created this discussion and waited for members' opinions some opinions are somewhat similar to what this guy did back in 2010 It is understandable because the jackpot is very huge but will you go to the extent of doing a stake out in the lottery office and wait for three months to get the price, have you not think of the risks.

Based on the article two winners did a stakeout already.

https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2010/12/05/635982/grand-lotto-winner-faces-tough-security-check

[image]

BTW, I think this is worthy of getting added in the OP especially as this clears up misunderstanding some had after only reading the first post.

Gotta say, it's smart of him to setup some precautionary measures to secure his well being as I've seen cases of winners getting assaulted before and that's just the tip of the iceberg -- i do believe such cases are more likely as oppose to sudden accidents or coma. Though 3 monthss may be over the top, I understand his sentiment.

[avp2306]

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Do you think it's a good idea to claim your winnings a day after hitting the jackpot or wait a few weeks?

How about you? When do you think is the right time to claim your winnings?

lottery event owners will certainly need several days to give the winning money to the winner because usually the funds they have are stored elsewhere, they don't have a lot of cash at one time, they have to collect it and also verify the winner, whether he is really fair or commit cheating while the lottery event is in progress, in essence the reasons used by the lottery organizers to delay the time for awarding prizes, are very acceptable.

Yes this is one of the reason since they need to set up a schedule for a winner to claim his prize. Also there are instances that a winner is avoiding any commotion that might happen in public since this is so risky especially on their personal security since they are dealing with huge amount of money that's why other lottery winners decide to take their prizes when the news about the lucky winner subside so that they can make sure that by the time they claim their rewards they are safe and make sure no other bad elements will follow them since they are bringing a huge check that has a lot of money in it.

If I am the winner I will not claim my winnings instantly maybe I will wait for couple of weeks and just call the lottery institution about that so they would know that we are waiting for right timing so there will be no big problems will came once we claim our money.

[bisdak40]

How about you? When do you think is the right time to claim your winnings?

If I'll be lucky to win a lotto then I will claim it after maybe a few weeks. I have to give time on how to handle my security as in our country, you are a target by criminals if they know that you have lots of money.

I have once a co-worker who hit the lotto jackpot and he took some time for us to realize that he won the lotto as he didn't divulge this to us, we were just surprised on the sudden change of lifestyle like buying new cars and buying lots. He said that he spent some money to hire a former policeman to serve as his security upon claiming his winnings.

[EluguHcman]

I did not get the general content of your post, so I'll just focus on the last questions.

Yes, you should claim your winnings as soon as possible. Anything can happen to a cooperation at anytime and the longer the winnings stay with them it is not yet 'yours' it belongs to the lottery.

Actually it is complicating about Op saying one would take over a year or couple of months to claim their jackpot prizes. I understand that there are some societies which the lottery authorities may tend to cause some delays so that they can sideline a lottery beneficial with frustrations of come today come tomorrow.
But lotto has been an international game which is governed on one T&C.
Clearly speaking to my experience it never occurred as the OP Stated. I would rather not argue if the game was a local game.

Asking about when it was right to claim your winning, of course it should be at the convenience of the lottery winner but the lottery would always have an exceeded period of time to be valid stating an invalid expiration of the winner being unaware to come and claim his prize.

[Webetcoins]

Do you think it's a good idea to claim your winnings a day after hitting the jackpot or wait a few weeks?

The earlier the better for me because the longer you wait the higher the chances of something bad happening. The action I will take will be to take my jackpot and change my location temporarily so I can think about what to do with the money outside the pressure of friends and family, and also for safety reasons. There is no good reason to be waiting to claim your winning, even when you do not need the money in a rush, just claim your jackpot and keep it elsewhere if you have no immediate use for it.

As long as you don't tell them that you are the jackpot winner or never tell them your favourite number to bet in the lottery, there is nothing bad will happen to you. Also if you already have the prize, you don't make it obvious like you buy a lot of luxuries stuffs suddenly. It may only be difficult for some because we can't just keep our money for nothing and there will always be a time for us to spend them.

I guess, we can just be honest with them and give them some tips (money). With the money that we win, I'm sure that there will still be lots that will be left for us, so we should not worry. Doing so, will make them feel better and the relationship that we already built with them for the long years are still there and it even became stronger now.

[summonerrk]

I often hear how casinos and lottery platforms do not give large winnings to players right away. They like to stretch the gambler's deposit withdrawal. At the same time, this may take years.
Why is inflation not taken into account?
A very cunning and dishonest way.
After all, the casino really likes to accept huge payments from players right away. But it takes a long time to return. Obviously, this is done so that the player cannot leave and constantly remembers about the casino, and of course, so that such a gambler wants to lose the money that the casino withdraws to him for his winnings.

[letteredhub]

Here in our country, if you hit the jackpot, you are given one year to claim your rewards. There is also a security feature on the back of the lotto ticket where you can write your name and sign it, so you are the only person who can claim the jackpot prize, and you have a year to claim it.

I read that some lottery winners take weeks or even months to claim their rewards, but what's the point?

What if you keep it and will surprise your family after a month, but you have an accident and you get into a coma?

Or you let it know to your family, but you decide that you will claim it after a month but some members of the family spread the news will this put your family and yourself in jeopardy
?

About two-thirds of lottery winners never had a prior plan on what to do with a lottery win as most of these lottery winners were only trying their luck with no expectations that they can be the lucky one. For this, they make out time to plan on what they can use the money for without having to rush for immediate claim, some even go at acquiring the advise of a financial expertise. Events has shown that many of those lottery winners that rush to claim their lottery win channel those money into luxury and mismanagement.

Not every family members can hold or keep to secret an excitement like lottery winning which is why I don't think it's bad idea to keep the your lottery win a secret. Doing so can actually help you the winner from unnecessary financial demands and requests from family and friends as they know you actually have the money they are asking from you.

[angrybirdy]

I often hear how casinos and lottery platforms do not give large winnings to players right away. They like to stretch the gambler's deposit withdrawal. At the same time, this may take years.
Why is inflation not taken into account?
A very cunning and dishonest way.
After all, the casino really likes to accept huge payments from players right away. But it takes a long time to return. Obviously, this is done so that the player cannot leave and constantly remembers about the casino, and of course, so that such a gambler wants to lose the money that the casino withdraws to him for his winnings.

That's what I've noticed too, casino is really fast when it comes to processing deposits from their players but it takes times and weeks to release the winning amount of the players, seems like they don't want their players to experience winning? Kidding aside, maybe it's better that they give the prize to the winners right away because there is a big chance that others will just use it again for gambling.

[Strongkored]

How about you? When do you think is the right time to claim your winnings?

Of course it's better sooner, especially if the lottery is from a private gambling company which could go bankrupt so you won't be able to receive the winnings.
In my opinion, if there are winners who need a long time to receive the winnings, it is because there is a verification stage that must be carried out by the gambling company that holds the lottery because of course they don't want the money to be given to people who are not the real winners, because of cases like this might happen and gambling company could be in dangers, but I have never won or bought a lotre, but if I win, of course I really want to receive it straight away because before the money is in our hands, it is not our money because something bad could happen and we can't enjoy it.

[lovesmayfamilis]

Obviously, all deadlines for receiving a prize depend on the amount. The higher the amount, the more likely and longer the terms for payments will be. You can guess that paying a large amount requires careful verification as well as time to collect this amount. However, for someone who has won the jackpot, it is necessary to be as restrained as possible so as not to lose the prize that has not yet been received. Some people start boasting, others are so happy that they drink a lot of alcohol, and unexpected things happen to them that are not entirely positive.
In addition, a pause during the jackpot payment provides a good opportunity to think about where the money will be spent and how many taxes, if any, will be required.

[alani123]

The tax implications of taking a huge lump sum of money are different than taking a subscription type payment where you get an amount deposited to your account every year or every month.

You are going to be taxed more for the lump sum usually. But not always. It really depends on the given legislation. In some countries it's not even possible to get your winnings over time as this tax code difference doesn't even exist. It's pretty much an American thing but this type of taxation had also spread to other places so I would t be surprised to see it in other places too.

[Findingnemo]

I read that some lottery winners take weeks or even months to claim their rewards, but what's the point?

The actual reason is to avoid taxes depends on the country where you live in, if the law is straight and pretty simple that you need to pay flat % of your winnings as tax no matter what then claiming as soon as makes sense but in many states government run lottery so they offer different options and one who withdrew all in once has to pay 50% as tax and one who take the rewards in the installments every month they will get 100% if their winnings with no tax deduction but it will take 10 or even more years to collect the rewards completely.

[coin-investor]

There are many opinions as to why members are taking time to claim their rewards, I can only speak based what is the law regarding claiming of lotto prize here in our country and the majority are in one in saying that the winner should claim the winnings right away which is the right idea.

Although there were reports that a winner takes a month to claim the prize because he did stake out the lottery company because he is afraid for his safety and his family, winners have a different mentality when they suddenly win a life-changing amount so it takes them time to process the whole situation, but there were no report in our country where the winner did not claim because of fear of changing his life.

Locking this thread and thank you all to those who participate on this healthy discussion