Lottery News

The California Lottery players are on a storm to bag exciting lottery prizes, but the claim to their lucky win has to wait twice the amount it usually takes.

Since June, as the California Lottery was busily adjusting its operations due to the ongoing pandemic, the claiming procedure for the prize payouts started to lag and delayed the process.

Normally the processing time for the prize claims is four to six weeks, but due to the increased number of winning tickets and pandemic, the time for claiming procedures has lengthened to as long as 10 to 16 weeks. Even the Customer Service Center had to face the effects of the delay, by answering a heightened number of claim inquiries. As per the official statement put out by the lottery, the staff has been constantly working overtime to decrease the processing time.

According to a player, Linda Armstrong, she has been waiting for over three months to claim her prize payouts worth $30,000, after hitting the jackpot twice in a week for two different scratch-off tickets - $20,000 on "Ultimate Millions" in April and on "Money Mania" ticket a week later. The odds of this happening are quite slim and somehow she managed to win both the prizes but the increased wait time for the payouts has been keeping the winners’ money at bay.

The team of the California Lottery stated that they have been working diligently to make the processing time back to normal. They have advised that the fastest way to claim the prizes over $600 and over is by making an appointment in advance or by dropping off their claims at one of the nine drop boxes of Lottery District Offices. They have also urged the players to double-check their claim forms and verify their signatures. Further, the Lottery has thanked the players for their patience and understanding!