On the Instant Lottery ticket it states “Prizes subject to availiablity”. What does this mean?
“Sorry your out of luck, we just gave our last billion to “The Special School for the arts”.” ?
Each instant game has a limited number of top prizes. In New York, the practice is to recall the game tickets after the last top prize has been claimed. However, they cannot get the tickets back instantly, of course.
The disclaimer probably means that if you bought your ticket after the last top prize has been claimed but before the lottery agent returned the tickets to the state, you’re still out of luck.
Zev Steinhardt
The phrase may also be there to address form of payout, e.g. you present a ticket for redemption worth $2500, but the lottery agent only has $500 in their safe. You might not like having to wait 2-3 days to receive a check for $2000, but that would be in concert with lottery regulations.
That’s not the case in New York. A retailer who sells lottery tickets has to pay out prizes up to $600. Beyond that, they have to be claimed at a state lottery office, or by mail.
My bad for failing to add the standard geographic disclaimer. In PA up to $2500 may be paid in cash, check, or money order by the lottery retailer, prizes greater than that go to Harrisburg.