Hundreds of millions of pounds worth of lottery prizes have gone unclaimed in the past six years, new figures show.
And that money is gone for good - with National Lottery rules stating if people fail to claim their winnings within 180 days, they're donated to the Good Causes fund instead.
In one case, an exceptionally unlucky player left a £63.9million EuroMillions win unclaimed in 2013.
The situation is the opposite with Premium Bonds, where prizes remain in the winners name forever - and anyone that wins between £5,000 and £100,000 is sent a letter and jackpot winners are told in person by one of NS&I's 'Agent Millions'.
"There has been a host of occasions where someone has defied the odds and won, but not come forward to claim the prize," said Marc Gershon, director of property developer Misuma and house raffle site Winmydreamhome.com, who conducted the research.
"To put it into perspective, we could have delivered 3,000 new homes to tackle the housing crisis with the money that has gone unclaimed, but at least it has gone to a good cause instead."
The good news is that there's a simple way to make sure you're not left red-faced though - play online.
That way you will be automatically notified of winnings if you forget to check the draw and – even better – there's no way to lose your ticket.
Unclaimed lottery prizes by year
- 2018 - £122,500,000
- 2017 - £131,900,000
- 2016 - £128,400,000
- 2015 - £127,700,000
- 2014 - £112,200,000
- 2013 - £181,300,000
