BELIZE CITY, Belize – A substantial lottery prize has been officially declared forfeited and will be redirected to charitable organizations after the ticket holder failed to claim it within the mandated period. The incident involves the highly publicized Million Dalla Jackpot draw conducted by Belize Government Lotteries Limited in December, which initially produced nine winners.
While eight fortunate winners promptly came forward to secure their portions of the jackpot, one winning ticket remained unclaimed as the strict thirty-day redemption window expired. This has resulted in over one hundred thousand dollars in prize money reverting to the lottery corporation, as explicitly stipulated in the rules printed on every lottery ticket.
Janel Espat, Managing Director of Belize Government Lotteries Limited, provided clarification on the protocol for unclaimed prizes. Despite acknowledging that this year’s jackpot sales did not yield substantial profits, Espat confirmed that the company’s Board of Directors has unanimously decided to allocate the entire unclaimed amount to charitable causes.
The selection process for beneficiary organizations will be determined during the corporation’s upcoming board meeting scheduled for mid-February. Lottery officials also noted that unclaimed prizes occur with some regularity, particularly when tickets are purchased through third-party sub-agents rather than via the company’s official digital platforms. In this specific instance, the winning ticket was not purchased through the app or website, leaving the potentially unaware winner completely anonymous with no means of contact or identification.