Editorial: Punters slow to check tickets

It's so easy to check your ticket these days. Photo / Stephen Parker

For four days Greerton Lotto's $5 million winning ticket remained unclaimed. It was only yesterday a lucky Auckland couple claimed their prize.

I can never quite understand why it so often takes people so long to get around to checking their ticket.

I never buy Lotto tickets (they're a waste of money) so news the winning ticket was bought in Tauranga never means much to me but, if you had bought a ticket there, surely you would be making an extra effort to check your numbers pronto.

If I did buy a ticket I'd be checking it on Sunday at the latest. Especially if I knew I had bought it from the store which sold the winning ticket.

So often you read of prizes remaining unclaimed for a week or more after the draw.

Last month, I read a story about a winning ticket worth $1 million sold in Auckland in 2014 which had just two weeks left for the winner to claim it.

How does that happen?

It's so easy to check your ticket these days. If you don't catch the draw on television on Saturday night you can look up the winning numbers online.

If computers aren't your thing, there is always the newspaper and, failing that, you can drop in to your local store and get them to check your ticket.

I understand that big winners may not want to show their face to claim their prize at their local Lotto shop. If that's the case it's a call to Lotto's head office in Auckland and a trip up to see them. I'd be straight in my car or on a plane to claim the prize (you've just won big bucks after all, you can afford to make the trip).

If you're going to spend money on Lotto, make sure you take the time to check your ticket.