Who will (not) become a millionaire?

Written by Rainer Ackermann

A grand prize of more than 300 million forints (730,000 euros) has gone unclaimed.

As the state gambling company Szerencsejáték Zrt. announced on Wednesday, a winner in the so-called Scandinavian Lotto has not come forward since mid-October. After 90 days, the patience period expires, during which winnings are withheld for those who are unable to claim them for whatever reason. Anyone who does not report during this period loses their claim to their winnings. The other gamblers can be happy about this, because Szerencsejáték Zrt. then organises special draws to get the money to the people after all.

In almost 25 years of the state-owned gambling company, there have been eight occasions in which winners of major prizes of 100 million forints or more have not come forward. The most sensational case in this series occurred in 2017, when someone won the main prize of around 1.5 billion forints (more than 4.8 million euros at the time) in the ‘5 out of 90’ lottery, but never came forward to actually become a billionaire.