Cash Unclaimed Media Room

Lotteries publicize big unclaimed lottery prizes before they are about to expire. “We tell people: ‘Check your tickets! Hey, you never know,’ “New York Lottery spokesman John Charleson says. This applies to both the regular as well as occasional buyers of lotteries. Unclaimed lottery cases are reported very frequently and many times hefty jackpots are unclaimed for a long time. Every year, scores of big jackpots are left unclaimed and the authorities have put all the measures of publicizing any unclaimed lottery – so that the rightful owner picks up the prize money before the expiry date.

The unclaimed money pile is major source of concern for state treasuries along with federal agencies. The exponential growth of the unclaimed money has been unabated and can be seen across all the states. In addition to the larger states, now the smaller states and organizations like banks and insurance companies, are also reporting large volumes of abandoned and unclaimed funds.

Larger states like New York and California are facing the challenge of locating the owners of huge unclaimed money chunks: $10 billion and $6 billion, respectively. In a recent Press Release, about half a million dollars in unclaimed money from former Washington Mutual Bank is waiting to be claimed by its previous customers.

The volume of unclaimed money continues to rise. This has become a major concern for the state and federal agencies. While every state is reporting huge additions to its unclaimed money vault every month, some of the larger states have reported unbelievable figures of unclaimed money. While California is reporting unclaimed money to the tune of $5.7 Billion, New York’s pile of unclaimed money has swelled up to $9.9 billion.

Apart from the state treasuries, some of the largest banks have also been reporting big numbers of unclaimed bank balances. In a recent Press Release, about half a million dollars in unclaimed money from former Washington Mutual Bank in Wisconsin is waiting to be claimed.

There are a lot of celebrities who have unclaimed funds, like 90% of common U.S. residents. According to Inside Edition, some of the wealthiest celebrities have unclaimed funds waiting for them: George Clooney ($180 from Warner Brothers), Jennifer Aniston (a $100 Tiffany store credit), Goldie Hawn ($300, which long time love Kurt Russell says will be given to charity) and comedian Dana Carvey ($800). Even the show’s anchor, Deborah Norville, was told she has an unclaimed outstanding sum from 1997 in an account. Carvey tells Inside Edition he’s just going to leave the money where it is. “I don’t want to put it in the stock market because everything I put in there goes ‘whoop’”