Florida lottery rules
You have 180 days to claim in Florida, the state withholds nothing and the rules on being named have a threshold worth reading.
What we can confirm
- Time to claim
- 180 days from the drawing. source, checked 16 Sep 2026
- State tax withheld
- Nothing. Federal withholding still applies, and a state taking nothing up front isn't the same as owing nothing. source, checked 16 Sep 2026
- Whether you are named
- Name withheld for a period, then released, from $250,000. A delay rather than anonymity. A prize of $250,000 or more is withheld from public records for 90 days after it is claimed, and the name is released once those 90 days are up. source, checked 16 Sep 2026
- What a retailer can pay you
- Up to $599 in cash at a retailer. Above that means a lottery office or a claim by mail. source, checked 16 Sep 2026
- Minimum age
- 18 to buy a ticket or claim a prize. source, checked 16 Sep 2026
When sales stop in Florida
- Mega Millions
- 10:00 PM on a drawing night, Eastern time. Buying after that puts you in the next drawing instead. source, checked 17 Sep 2026
- Powerball
- 10:00 PM on a drawing night, Eastern time. Buying after that puts you in the next drawing instead. source, checked 17 Sep 2026
Retailers often stop earlier than the state deadline, and a machine that has closed for the night has closed whatever the published time says. Leave yourself more than the last minute.
What goes unclaimed in Florida
$1.08 billion in Florida prize money was won and never collected between FY2010 and FY2025, and left the prize system for the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund.
A prize becomes unclaimed 180 days after a drawing, or 60 days after a scratch-off game closes. A fifth of it goes back into future prize pools or special prize promotions, so it is won by somebody else rather than lost.
The scratch-off clock runs from when a game closes rather than from the drawing, so those figures swing on game timing rather than on how many people forgot to check.
Rows marked unaudited are published by the state but not yet audited, and are not added into any total here. How we counted this, and every other state we hold.
What we could not confirm
This page shows 5 things about Florida, and only what we found stated on a page we could open and cite. Where Florida Lottery does not publish a figure, it is missing here rather than estimated. A claim deadline or a tax rate invented to fill a gap is how somebody loses money they had already won.
Questions about the Florida lottery
- How long do I have to claim a lottery prize in Florida?
- 180 days from the drawing. That is six months. After that the ticket is worth nothing, no matter what it matched.
- Does Florida tax lottery winnings?
- Florida withholds no state tax on lottery prizes. Federal tax still applies.
- Can you stay anonymous after winning the lottery in Florida?
- Not permanently. The name is withheld above $250,000, then released. A delay rather than anonymity. A prize of $250,000 or more is withheld from public records for 90 days after it is claimed, and the name is released once those 90 days are up.
- How old do you have to be to buy a lottery ticket in Florida?
- 18. The age is set by the state, not the game, so it can change the moment you cross a state line.
- Where do you claim a big lottery prize in Florida?
- A retailer can pay you up to $599 in cash. Anything more goes to a lottery office or by mail, with ID and a claim form.
- What time do lottery ticket sales stop in Florida?
- In Florida, Mega Millions at 10:00pm and Powerball at 10:00pm. Each game and each state sets its own cutoff, so this isn't the time in the next state over. Buy well before it.
- How much lottery money goes unclaimed in Florida?
- $1,076,952,000 between FY2010 and FY2025, taken from Florida's own audited financial reports. It goes to the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund. That figure counts only money that left the prize system, not money put back into future prizes.
Check a Florida ticket
Where you bought a ticket changes what it's worth, so tell us the state when you save one.
Claiming, from the people who pay
We are not a lottery operator and we cannot pay a prize. Florida Lottery can: https://floridalottery.com
Everything above was last checked on 16 September 2026. State rules change, and the lottery's own page is the one that counts.