WA's Final Vaccine Lottery Includes 350+ Prizes, $1 Million

OLYMPIA, WA — Washington's fifth and final "Shot of a Lifetime" vaccine lottery takes place Tuesday, July 13, with more cash and prizes are up for grabs than any of the previous drawings.

Lottery officials said nearly 100 smaller prizes went unclaimed in the fourth drawing on June 29, including concert tickets for Climate Pledge Arena, Xboxes and more. Those prizes will be in the rotation again for the July 13 drawing, boosting the final prize cache above 350.

Other unclaimed items include Seahawks and Mariners tickets, Nintendo Switch consoles, Google prize packages and camping gift cards. One lucky winner will be awarded $1 million, equaling the four previous grand prizes combined.

Washington's first drawing for vaccinated adults took place on June 8, as the state made a final push to reopen before June 30. While the state fell just short of reaching its vaccination target early, Gov. Jay Inslee said Wednesday that researchers found the lottery promotion successfully increased immunization rates.

According to the Washington Lottery, the number of adults listed in the state immunization database — where the random winners are pulled from — grew from 3,904,156 on June 8 to 4,058,453 on June 29.

Any adult resident who was vaccinated in the state at any time through Sunday, July 11 will be eligible to win in the final drawing, excluding those who have claimed previous prizes. The winning numbers are picked from the millions assigned to each person in the Department of Health's statewide Immunization Information System. After the drawing, the lottery works with health officials to match the numbers with their corresponding names and contact information.

Winners have up to 72 hours to claim each prize after the lottery's first attempt to contact them. The lottery also draws an alternate winner for the large cash prize, in case the original winner fails to claim the prize in time. The final drawing will take place around 8 a.m. on July 13, and the winners will be contacted starting the next day.

Lottery officials have a few tips to make sure people do not miss out on their winnings:

• Officials calling from the lottery will most often have a 253 area code, but some phones will have a 564 number — the state's newest area code. Official prize emails will originate only from an address ending in "@doh.wa.gov."
• Winners have 72 hours to claim their prize, and the clock starts ticking as soon as the first call attempt happens. As the deadline nears, officials will also attempt to text winners, and send an e-mail if their address is on file.
• Washingtonians seeking help verifying that their vaccination records are in the state's database can call the COVID-19 hotline at 1-833-VAX-HELP.
• Beware of scammers: The state received some reports of scammers posing as lottery officials. The Attorney General's office shared several tips to avoid scammers Monday and encourages anyone suspicious of a call, text, or e-mail to contact the Washington State Lottery at 360-810-2888 to verify authenticity.