Washington's 2nd Vaccine Lottery: What To Know Tuesday, June 15

OLYMPIA, WA — Washington's second of five vaccine lottery drawings happens Tuesday morning, with another 251 prizes up for grabs for vaccinated adults, including a $250,000 cash prize. Tuesday's lottery will also feature the first of two youth-focused drawings, awarding 15 winners ages 12 to 17 with 100 Guaranteed Education Tuition (GET) credits. The credits can be used to cover a full year of undergraduate costs at public colleges and universities.

The Washington State Lottery drew its first 249 winning numbers last Tuesday, awarding one person with $250,000 and dozens of others with smaller prizes. Despite repeated attempts to contact all of last week's winners, lottery officials said more than 100 prizes went unclaimed and would be added to the rotation for the final drawing next month.

"As of noon today, 146 of the 249 prizes from the first 'Shot of a Lifetime' drawing have been claimed," said Dan Miller, a spokesperson for the lottery. "Despite our best efforts to contact all 249 people whose numbers were drawn, 103 did not respond to our multiple attempts to reach them via phone, email and/or text. Their prizes have been classified as unclaimed and will be added to the set of prizes available during the final drawing on July 13."

With limited exceptions, anyone in Washington that has received at least one dose of vaccine in the state is automatically eligible to win prizes. The lottery selects random numbers assigned to each person in the statewide immunization database, then works with the Department of Health to identify the winner and contact them.

The lottery selected last Tuesday's winners among more than 3.9 million people in the database, officials said. An updated number will be available after the next drawing. The cutoff for new names to be added to each week's lottery is 11:59 p.m. on the Sunday before the drawing.

State officials also shared 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.

The prizes successfully claimed last week include:

• $250,000
• One Seattle Mariners suite package
• One set of Seattle Seahawks tickets
• Three Nintendo Switch packs
• Eight "Wild Bucks" certificates from the Department of Fish & Wildlife
• 10 Amazon Echo Dots
• 10 Washington State Parks camping gift cards
• 48 Microsoft Xboxes
• 64 Discover Passes

The unclaimed prizes added to the July 13 drawing are:

• One set of Seattle Seahawks club level tickets & parking passes
• Two Nintendo Switch packs
• 10 Washington State Parks camping gift cards
• 12 "Wild Bucks" from the Department of Fish & Wildlife
• 15 Amazon Echo Dots
• 27 Microsoft Xboxes
• 36 Discover Passes

Here is a list of all upcoming drawings:

• Tuesday, June 15 ($250K + 250 other prizes/youth tuition)
  • Winners contacted between June 16 and June 18
• Tuesday, June 22 ($250K + other prizes/youth tuition)
  • Winners contacted between June 23 and June 25
• Tuesday, June 29 ($250K + other prizes)
  • Winners contacted between June 30 and July 2
• Tuesday, July 13 ($1 million grand prize + remaining prizes)
  • Grand prize winner contacted by the next day