You should check your recent Lotto tickets one more time. There happens to be some unclaimed lottery tickets from time to time, and Ithuba is actively searching for winners using social media.
Now, gross unclaimed winning amount is R157 million in total from various games.
Currently the search continues for ticket owner who won over R2.2 million from the draw on November 12, 2024. Claim period expire on November 12, 2025.
The Powerball Plus winner of R69 MILLION from the 23/09/25 draw still didn't claim ticket.
Past searches for eligible winners
- Year 2025: Someone has won R10,744,166.00 from the Lotto Plus2 draw, via the Absa banking app (August)
- Year 2020: National Lottery in South Africa is intensively searching for a player who still didn't show up for his big win. It was the biggest jackpot in Powerball Plus at the time, the draw took place on Friday, 10 July 2020. There was a single winner that day. The winner has won outstanding jackpot of R 153,466,150.39 and didn't show up to claim.
- Year 2018: The draw was conducted on 27th January 2018 and as we already know 4 coupons won the R 27.5 million share of the prize. Possibly all tickets bought by one person who did not come up to claim.
- Year 2017: Over R39 million in jackpot prizes (R21,747,237.30 from 30 June Powerball draw, R13,019,619.60 for October 3rd).
Three Raffle winners (cars) tickets:
nr. 1018403 bought in Checkers Nahoon in Old Transkei Road, Nahoon, East London;
nr. 0108220 bought in Shoprite Halt Road in CNR Owen and Halt Road, Elsies River, Matroosfontein;
nr. 0378394 bought in Tamaras Gift Shop in Ajmer Road,Merebank, Durban - Year 2016: Christmas Raffle ticket KENSINGTON SUPERSPAR DURBAN NORTH.
It seems that Gauteng is the place where people the most forget to claim their big wins. You should always check your winning numbers in different sources. African Lottery NET page, official Ithuba page or retailer. Also, you can call the player hotline at 0800 484 822 (toll-free - calls from a landline only).
The prizes we covered in this post are still waiting. Players have 365 days to claim lottery tickets. They just need ID book/card, the ticket, of course, bank statement and proof of residence.
What happens to unclaimed money
Unclaimed money from lottery is being used back to organise bigger jackpots for current draws.
The procedure states that details of unclaimed prizes are published six months post-draw, with reminders issued 30 days before expiration. In all cases where details of unclaimed prizes are released, ITHUBA will limit the detail to the prize amounts, the areas and the selling retailer's information.