How Long Do You Have to Claim a Lottery Ticket? Every State

A New Jersey man won a $5.9 million Pick-6 jackpot in May 2025 and didn’t know it for almost a year. In April 2026, the New Jersey Lottery warned that the ticket would soon expire. He searched his home again and found it crumpled in a pair of pants from the year before. He reached the lottery’s office on May 14, 2026, eight days before the deadline (opens in a new tab).

New Jersey gives you a year. Most states give you about half that, and a scratch-off can expire sooner still. This page lists every state’s deadline, taken from its lottery’s rules or its state law as of October 2026.

How long do you have to claim a lottery ticket?

Usually 180 days from the draw. That’s the rule in 31 of the 46 places that run a lottery (45 states and Washington, DC). Another 14 give you a full year, and New Mexico gives you 90 days. The deadline is set by the state that sold the ticket, not the one you live in.

• About 180 days: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland (182 days), Mississippi, Missouri, Montana (six months), Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming and Washington, DC.
• One year: Delaware, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont.
• 90 days: New Mexico.

Two states set different deadlines for different draw games. California gives a Powerball or Mega Millions jackpot a year and every other draw-game prize 180 days, the smaller Powerball prizes included. Iowa gives its Pick 3 and Pick 4 games 90 days.

Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah don’t run a state lottery.

What is the claim deadline in your state?

Find the state where you bought the ticket. “Draw games” means Powerball, Mega Millions and the state’s own number games, counted from the draw date. Scratch-off deadlines count from the date the lottery ends that game, which is announced on its website.

Kansas and Michigan don’t publish one deadline for every scratch-off, so check the game’s page on the lottery’s website. The same goes for any ticket close to its deadline: many lotteries print the expiry date on the back, and Powerball says (opens in a new tab) to check with your lottery when it isn’t there.

Why do scratch-offs expire sooner?

Because their clock starts when the game ends, and some states give you only 60 or 90 days after that. A scratch-off has no draw date. Each game stays on sale until the lottery retires it, then you have a set time to cash in a winner.

Florida is the shortest, at 60 days after the end of the game (opens in a new tab), against 180 days for its draw games. Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Tennessee all give 90 days.

A game’s end date usually comes long after you bought the ticket, which helps. South Carolina is the exception to watch. Its regulations let stores keep selling a game for up to 90 days after it officially ends, and the 90 days to claim run from the official end. So a ticket bought on the last day a store sells it can expire within hours.

Most lotteries list their ending games and each one’s last claim date. If an old scratch-off turns up, look up the game by name or number before you assume it’s too late, or that you have plenty of time.

When does the clock start, and what if the deadline falls on a weekend?

On the draw date for draw games. A ticket bought on Monday for Saturday’s Powerball is measured from Saturday. Most states count a multi-draw ticket from the draw that won, while Missouri counts from the ticket’s last winning draw.

What happens on the final day differs:

• Weekends and holidays. New Mexico, Oregon and Virginia move a deadline that lands on a closed day to the next business day. Don’t count on that everywhere. Plan to arrive before the last day, since claim offices close by late afternoon.
• Mailed claims. In California, Connecticut, Florida, Tennessee, Virginia and Washington, DC, a postmark by the deadline counts. In Kansas, Mississippi and North Carolina, the ticket has to arrive by the deadline, so a letter mailed on day 179 is too late.
• Large prizes. Big wins are claimed at the lottery’s office, often by appointment. Nebraska takes prizes of $20,000 or more only in person in Lincoln, and Tennessee takes prizes of $200,000 or more only at its Nashville headquarters. Book early when the deadline is close.

Is there an earlier deadline for the lump sum?

Yes, in a few states. The ticket may be good for months, but the choice between a lump sum and annual payments has its own clock.

• Illinois and Florida. A jackpot winner gets the lump sum only by claiming within 60 days of the draw. Illinois’s rule (opens in a new tab) is that after 60 days, the prize is paid as an annuity. A ticket claimed in month seven is still valid in Illinois, but it’s paid in yearly installments.
• Texas. You pick cash or annuity when you buy the ticket. The $78 million Lotto Texas jackpot claimed in May 2026 was paid as $43.8 million in cash (opens in a new tab) before taxes, because the buyer chose the cash option at the counter. It was claimed six days before it expired.
• Most other states. You get 60 days after you claim, or after the lottery validates your ticket, to decide. That’s the rule in Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Wisconsin, among others.

Our guide on what to do if you win the lottery covers the cash-or-annuity decision itself, and what each state takes in tax once you’ve decided.

What happens to lottery prizes nobody claims?

The state that sold the ticket keeps the money. Powerball’s FAQ (opens in a new tab) says unclaimed prizes “are kept by the lottery jurisdiction”. An unclaimed Powerball jackpot is the exception: the money goes back to every lottery in proportion to its sales for that run.

What each state does with it is set by its own law:

None of it comes back to you. Before a big prize expires, lotteries usually announce where the ticket was sold and how long is left. That’s how the New Jersey winner found out, and how the Texas Lottery got word out about its $78 million ticket, five weeks before it expired (opens in a new tab).

Prize draws without a ticket to lose

A lottery prize lives on a slip of paper you have to keep, check and bring back yourself. Lodavo works differently: your tickets live in the app, and we tell you when you win. It’s a free prize-linked savings app, and the more you save, the more tickets you get for weekly cash prize draws. There’s nothing to buy and no slip of paper to keep track of. The money you save never leaves your own bank account, so a week without a win still leaves you with your savings.

This page is general information, not legal advice. Each lottery’s rules set its deadlines and can change, so check with the lottery that sold your ticket before you count on a date.