UKGC: Unclaimed Prize Data Too Costly to Release
Regulator withholds comprehensive data on unclaimed National Lottery prizes, citing the high cost of retrieval under Freedom of Information laws.
The UK Gambling Commission has declined to release a comprehensive list of unclaimed National Lottery prizes from 2020-2022, citing the excessive cost and time required to compile the data. The refusal highlights the sheer volume of unclaimed winnings and a lack of easily accessible public data on the topic.
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Regulator Refuses Full Disclosure on Unclaimed Winnings
The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has withheld comprehensive data on unclaimed National Lottery prizes, stating that the cost of fulfilling the request would exceed the legal limit for Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. The response highlights the significant administrative burden involved in tracking the sheer volume of unclaimed winnings.
The decision, published following a request made on 11 January 2023, means that a full picture of unclaimed prizes across major games like Lotto, EuroMillions, and Thunderball for 2020 to 2022 remains unavailable to the public.
The Cost of Transparency
For consumers, understanding the scale of unclaimed prizes is a key transparency issue. While individual high-value prizes are often publicised by The National Lottery operator in an effort to find the winner, a complete dataset would offer a clearer view of the total value of prizes that go uncollected each year.
This information is held by the Gambling Commission, but its response to the FOI request reveals the difficulty in accessing it. The regulator explained that compiling such a list is a resource-intensive task.
Breakdown of the FOI Refusal
The request asked for a "comprehensive list" of all unclaimed prizes for Lotto, EuroMillions, Thunderball, and Millionaire Maker draws for two consecutive 12-month periods between November 2020 and November 2022.
The UKGC confirmed it holds the information but invoked Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This allows public authorities to refuse requests where the cost of compliance exceeds £450, which is estimated to be the equivalent of 18 hours of staff time.
To justify its decision, the Commission provided a crucial insight:
"...based on previous requests of a similar nature, it has been calculated that it takes between 12-14 hours to produce this information for one 12-month period with a reduced scope (such as unclaimed prizes over the value of £50,000)."
Given the request was for all prizes over a two-year period, the UKGC estimated the work would take "in excess of 18 hours" as it would require staff to check a high volume of individual records.
Significance for Consumers and the Industry
The refusal to provide the data, while legally justified under the FOIA, underscores a gap in public data availability. It indicates that the volume of unclaimed prizes, including smaller-tier wins, is so substantial that collating it is not a simple task for the regulator.
Without a readily accessible central database, consumers and researchers cannot easily analyse trends in unclaimed winnings. The UKGC did suggest that a narrowed request might be fulfilled, indicating that more specific data (for example, on a single game or a higher prize tier) could potentially be released.
Under the terms of its licence, The National Lottery operator Camelot (and its successor Allwyn) is required to transfer all interest earned on unclaimed prizes to Good Causes. After the 180-day claim period has expired, the prize money itself is also transferred to support these projects across the UK.