What if you won a big prize but couldn't claim it because the ticket was damaged?
The lottery wants to help all players claim their prizes, so we perform reconstructions when a player submits a ticket that can't be validated through traditional means. We do it to help pay every player who wins!
One lucky winner took home a $1 million prize in March because of our commitment to ticket reconstruction.
“That’s a great thing that you guys do to help people with damaged tickets,” he said. “I had no idea that some lotteries don’t do that.”
The winner purchased a scratch-off ticket from a convenience store in Burlington but he threw his ticket in the trash after scratching it.
“I thought it wasn’t a winner,” he said. “I decided to double check it and that’s when I realized I won.”
When he brought the ticket in to lottery headquarters in Raleigh, the ticket had a rip in it and the win initially could not be validated. But after the lottery went through its ticket reconstruction process, it validated his big win and he received his $1 million prize.
Joseph Cosgriff, director of security at the lottery, said that ticket reconstruction is an important process that the lottery utilizes to help winners claim their prizes.
“We take all available measures available to us to ensure that all players get paid,” Cosgriff said.
So, what do we do?
When a player presents a damaged ticket to try and claim a prize at a claims center, lottery staff will take that ticket and attempt to reconstruct it. If the ticket is a scratch-off, we work with our ticket printer to have the ticket reconstructed. As long as we have sufficient data on the ticket, reconstruction can be done.
If the ticket is a draw game ticket, we do that in-house. For that, we must have enough data to identify a printed ticket from a retailer. This may also include traveling to the retailer location and working with the retailer for additional details to assist us with the reconstruction. While we try our best to reconstruct all damaged tickets, we cannot guarantee it for every ticket.
Did you know:
- We average about 500 reconstruction requests a year.
- Since January 2015, the lottery has reconstructed over 4,000 tickets
- About 85% are winning tickets and about 15% are non-winning tickets
Ticket reconstruction occurs because the lottery is committed to helping every single player claim their prize whenever possible.
Check out the video below giving an overview of the reconstruction process:
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