Code Section

8880.321.  

The commission shall promulgate regulations to establish a system of verifying the validity of prizes and to effect payment of the prizes, provided that:

(a) For convenience of the public, lottery game retailers may be authorized by the commission to pay winners of up to six hundred dollars ($600) after performing validation procedures on their premises appropriate to the lottery game involved.

(b) No prize may be paid arising from tickets or shares that are stolen, counterfeit, altered, fraudulent, unissued, produced or issued in error, unreadable, not received or not recorded by the lottery by applicable deadlines, lacking in captions that confirm and agree with the lottery play symbols required by the lottery game involved, purchased by a minor, or not in compliance with additional specific rules and regulations and confidential validation and security tests appropriate to the particular lottery game. The lottery may pay a prize even though the actual winning ticket is not received by the lottery if the lottery validates the claim for the prize based upon substantial proof. “Substantial proof” means any evidence that would permit the lottery to use established validation procedures, as specified in lottery regulations, to validate the claim.

The commission may require that any form relating to a claim for a prize shall be signed under penalty of perjury. This declaration shall meet the requirements of Section 2015.5 of the Code of Civil Procedure.

(c) No particular prize in any lottery game shall be paid more than once.

(d) The commission may specify that winners of less than twenty-five dollars ($25) claim the prizes from either the same lottery game retailer from whom the ticket or share was purchased or from the lottery itself.

(e) Players shall have the right to claim prize money for 180 days after the drawing or the end of the lottery game or play in which the prize was won, or, if a multistate lottery game, up to one year for jackpots and grand prizes. The commission may define shorter time periods for eligibility for participation in, and entry into, drawings involving entries or finalists. If a valid claim is not made for a prize directly payable by the commission or for any online game prize within the period applicable for that prize, the unclaimed prize money shall be treated as set forth in subdivision (a) of Section 8880.4 or, commencing with the 2009–10 fiscal year, be treated as total revenues as set forth in Section 8880.4.5.

(f) After the expiration of the claim period for prizes for each lottery game, the commission shall make available a detailed tabulation of the total number of tickets or shares actually sold in a lottery game and the total number of prizes of each prize denomination that were actually claimed and paid directly by the commission.

(g) A ticket or share shall not be purchased by, and a prize shall not be paid to, a member of the commission, any officer or employee of the commission, any officer or employee of the Controller who is designated in writing by the Controller as having possible access to confidential lottery information, programs, or systems, or any spouse, child, brother, sister, or parent of that person who resides within the same household of the person. Any person who knowingly sells or purchases a ticket or share in violation of this section, or who knowingly claims or attempts to claim a prize with a ticket or share that was purchased or sold in violation of this section, is guilty of a misdemeanor.

(h) No prize shall be paid to any person under the age of 18 years. Any person who knowingly claims or attempts to claim a prize with a ticket or share purchased by a person under the age of 18 years is guilty of a misdemeanor.