INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – The private company that’s taken over the Hoosier Lottery’s operation has ended some of the lottery’s games before all the big-money prizes could be won.
The Indianapolis Star reports that Hoosier Lottery players have lost out on $28.7 million worth of high-dollar scratch-off prizes since IGT Indiana signed a state contract in 2012 to run nearly all of the operations of the Hoosier Lottery.
More than half of Indiana’s scratch-off lottery tickets worth more than $1 million have gone unclaimed in the last five years. The lottery previously had a 10 percent rate of not awarding high-dollar scratch-off prizes.
Indiana lottery officials say the decision to end games is based on sales performance and player demand, not on the number of top prizes that have been claimed.