Michigan lottery rules
You have 365 days to claim in Michigan, the state withholds 4.25% and winners are named.
What we can confirm
- Time to claim
- 365 days from the drawing. source, checked 16 Sep 2026
- State tax withheld
- 4.25%, on top of federal withholding. source, checked 16 Sep 2026
- Whether you are named
- Name is released. Michigan shields winners of more than $10,000, but the law exempts games run jointly with other states, which is what Powerball and Mega Millions are. The protection covers Michigan's own games and not these two. 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 Michigan
- Mega Millions
- 10:45 PM on a drawing night, Eastern time. Michigan states this one as in-store and online explicitly. Buying after that puts you in the next drawing instead. source, checked 17 Sep 2026
- Powerball
- 9:58 PM on a drawing night, Eastern time. Michigan lists online and in-store together under Purchase Times. 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 Michigan
$629 million in Michigan prize money was won and never collected between FY2010 and FY2025, and left the prize system for the State School Aid Fund.
A prize becomes unclaimed one year after the drawing, or when an instant game expires.
Michigan revised how it estimates this in October 2021, which is most of why the figure halved between 2021 and 2022. That is a change in method, not a change in what players did.
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 4 things about Michigan, and only what we found stated on a page we could open and cite. Where Michigan 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 Michigan lottery
- How long do I have to claim a lottery prize in Michigan?
- A year from the drawing. After that the ticket is worth nothing, no matter what it matched.
- Does Michigan tax lottery winnings?
- Yes. Michigan withholds 4.25%, on top of federal tax.
- Can you stay anonymous after winning the lottery in Michigan?
- No. Michigan releases the winner's name. Michigan shields winners of more than $10,000, but the law exempts games run jointly with other states, which is what Powerball and Mega Millions are. The protection covers Michigan's own games and not these two.
- How old do you have to be to buy a lottery ticket in Michigan?
- 18. The age is set by the state, not the game, so it can change the moment you cross a state line.
- What time do lottery ticket sales stop in Michigan?
- In Michigan, Mega Millions at 10:45pm and Powerball at 9:58pm. Each game sets its own cutoff, so two drawings held minutes apart can stop selling nearly an hour apart. Buy well before the earlier one.
- How much lottery money goes unclaimed in Michigan?
- $629,815,541 between FY2010 and FY2025, taken from Michigan's own audited financial reports. It goes to the State School Aid Fund. That figure counts only money that left the prize system, not money put back into future prizes.
Check a Michigan 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. Michigan Lottery can: https://www.michiganlottery.com
Everything above was last checked on 16 September 2026. State rules change, and the lottery's own page is the one that counts.