Check your pockets, car consoles and underneath the couch: West Australians are unknowingly sitting on nearly $30 million in unclaimed lottery prizes.
And unlucky — or forgetful — West Aussies forfeited more than $13 million in Lotterywest prizes last year, more than three times higher than in 2021-22.
The figures are contained in the most recent Lotterywest annual report, released Thursday, which revealed a big spike in expired winnings over the past 12 months.
In its report, Lotterywest attributed the increase — from $4.2 million to just over $13 million — to the expiration of a temporary prize claim extension in March 2022.
Once forfeited, prizes are diverted to a pool of funds that become available for distribution through Lotterywest’s direct grants program.
The annual report also revealed the mountain of cash waiting to be claimed from wins over the past year.
The $28 million still up for grabs is down from $38 million in 2022.
Over the financial year, West Australians won more than $700 million in prizes, including 80 Division One winners who took home a combined $236 million, and 60 “top prize” winners in Scratch’n’Win who won $5.7 million.
Despite cost of living pressures mounting for WA families, Lotterywest sales climbed to more than $1.2 billion in 2022-23, an increase of almost $200 million on the previous year.
Powerball tickets were most popular, selling a combined $386 million followed by Saturday Lotto with $375 million in sales.
Oz Lotto on Tuesdays sold $136 million but has yet to recover to pre-pandemic highs.
More than $700 million was won in total prizes in WA over the past year, while an additional $350 million was pumped into the community through charitable grants and funding for government programs covering health, arts and sports.