After the draw, do you keep your old lottery tickets or throw them away? My recommendation is to trash the lottery tickets, but keep them if they are scratch-offs. Here’s why…

There doesn't seem to be any use for old lottery tickets after 6 months.

But make sure before you throw your lottery game tickets into the trash that you have checked these points:

• Get them double-checked by the store with their machine. This is no time to wonder whether you read the numbers correctly, and there are plenty of hard luck stories about lottery winners throwing away their winning goldmine.
  

• Make sure you don't have any unchecked bonus tickets. Sometimes these can look like the other tickets, so check first.
  

• Some stores and games hold a redraw where you put your non-winning tickets in a box to go into a further draw later. Check with your store or lottery organization before you throw them away.

You can also win extra prizes from your game with losing tickets.

It's called a second-chance draw, and many lotteries have them. Look for the details on their website.

Stephen Freauf figured that he couldn’t lose, since the odds for a win are better with a second chance game. And it paid off. He won $38,000 from his losing tickets from the Florida Lottery.

He had the choice of a 2010 Ford Mustang convertible or the cash-option value of the car which amounted to $38,000, and he took the cash.

Colorado Lottery officials surprised Paul G. at home on Aug. 14, 2018, after he won $500,000 on a second chance drawing for the "Idyllic Dollars/Brilliant Bucks" drawing.

Rick Kenny's scratch-off ticket in the Virginia Lottery’s $100,000 Home Changer game was initially a losing draw. 

However, the Navy retiree didn't drop the ticket in the trash as most players might do after a game.

Instead, he entered it into the Home Changer Scratcher Promotion drawing promoted as part of the game.

His ticket was drawn from more than 262,000 others to win the top prize.

The game was offered as part of a partnership between the lottery and Home Depot.

And to his great surprise, the losing ticket magically turned into a winner. He thought someone was playing a joke on him when he learned he was the big winner.

Kenny told Virginia Lottery officials that he often enters losing tickets in lottery drawings, and said, "You can't win if you don't play.”

MORE SECOND CHANCE WINNERS

The Colorado Lottery surprised winner Gary Martinez with the news that he won $1 million!

Malek Dabwan of Goldsboro got a phone call from the NC Education Lottery telling him that he’d won a prize.

He said winning $1 million didn’t even cross his mind when he heard the amount he’s won. Watch the video to see how he reacted when he finally found out!