Lottery Claim Deadlines by State

By Jacky Jian · Updated November 4, 2026 · Each deadline checked against the lottery’s own rules on November 3, 2026

Most lotteries give you 180 days from the drawing to claim a Powerball or Mega Millions prize: 26 of the 46 jurisdictions in the table below. Another 15 give a full year. Maryland gives 182 days, Montana six months and New Mexico only 90 days. The deadline belongs to the lottery that sold the ticket, not the state where you live, and a jackpot winner usually has a second, shorter deadline to choose the cash option.

Claim deadlines in every lottery state

Draw-game prizes, counted from the drawing date; the same deadline covers Powerball and Mega Millions in each state. Scratch-off deadlines run from the end of the game instead. Arizona and Tennessee could not be checked and are marked rather than guessed. Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah have no state lottery; Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are outside this table. Lotteries change their rules: the date on your ticket and the lottery’s own page take priority.

The shortest deadlines

New Mexico is the strictest: a drawing-game prize must be claimed within 90 days, moved to the next business day if the Lottery is closed on day 90. A visitor who buys a ticket on a trip there has about three months, not the six or twelve that most states allow. Montana gives six months from the drawing. Everywhere else the deadline is at least 180 days, and Maryland adds two more: 182.

Cash or annuity: a second deadline inside the first

A jackpot can be claimed until the deadline in the table, but the choice between the cash option and the annuity often closes much sooner. Where the rules say what happens if you never choose, the answer is the annuity: Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, Washington and Wyoming all pay the prize as an annuity when no choice is made in time.

• You choose when you buy the ticket. In Texas the playslip choice is final. In New Jersey a ticket bought as an annuity can still be switched to cash when you claim, but a cash ticket cannot be switched to the annuity.
• The clock starts at the drawing. Florida jackpot winners must claim within 60 days of the drawing to get the cash option at all. Illinois gives 60 days, starting the day after the drawing, to claim and select cash.
• 60 days after you claim. Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming start the 60 days when you claim or validate the ticket, so taking time before claiming does not cost you the cash option.
• 60 days after you become entitled to the prize. Michigan, New York and Rhode Island use this wording without saying whether the clock starts at the drawing or at the claim. Ask the lottery before you wait.

States not listed here have their own rules; ask the lottery before you claim. The lottery annuity calculator compares the two payouts after tax.

Mailing a ticket close to the deadline

If you claim by mail, find out which date counts. Connecticut and Washington, D.C. accept a claim postmarked within 180 days. North Carolina and Washington count the day the ticket arrives: in North Carolina a postmark does not satisfy the deadline, and in Washington putting the ticket in the mail does not count as receipt. Nebraska does not extend its 180 days when the last day falls on a weekend or holiday; New Mexico does. Big prizes are usually claimed in person anyway, often by appointment, so leave time to book one.

Which state’s deadline applies?

The lottery that sold the ticket pays the prize and sets the deadline. The Pennsylvania Lottery, for example, can only pay prizes on tickets it sold, including Powerball and Mega Millions, and Mega Millions tells players to check the claim period with the lottery in the state where the ticket was bought. A New Jersey resident with a Pennsylvania ticket therefore has Pennsylvania’s year and claims in Pennsylvania. Tax works the other way round: your home state can tax the prize wherever you bought it, as taxes on lottery winnings explains.

What happens to an unclaimed jackpot

An expired ticket cannot be paid. If a Mega Millions jackpot is not claimed in time, each participating lottery gets back the money it put into that jackpot through ticket sales, according to Mega Millions; the Arkansas Lottery describes the same return for Powerball. What happens next is set by each state’s law: some lotteries return the money to prizes and promotions, others send it to their beneficiaries.

Before you claim, read what to do if you win the lottery for the steps that come first, and estimate your take-home with the lottery tax calculator.