Mississippi Code 1972 (2023) › Title 27 - TAXATION AND FINANCE (§§ 27-1-1 — 27-117-15) › Chapter 115 - ALYCE G. CLARKE MISSISSIPPI LOTTERY LAW (§§ 27-115-1 — 27-115-91) › Section 27-115-43 - Proceeds of certain lottery prizes subject to state and federal income tax withholding laws; withholding of attachments, garnishments or executions; verification of validity of winning tickets; payment of prizes; unclaimed prize money; persons prohibited from purchasing tickets or claiming prizes

(1)
Proceeds of any lottery prize of Six Hundred Dollars ($600.00) or more shall be subject to state and federal income tax withholding laws, as applicable. Any attachments, garnishments or executions authorized and issued pursuant to law shall also be withheld if timely served upon the process agent of the corporation.
(2)
The board shall adopt administrative rules and regulations to establish a system of verifying the validity of tickets claimed to win prizes and to effect payment of such prizes, except that:
(a)
No prize, nor any portion of a prize, nor any right of any person to a prize awarded shall be assignable, except as provided for in Section
27-115-47
. Any prize, or portion thereof, remaining unpaid at the death of a prizewinner shall be paid to the estate of the deceased prizewinner or to the trustee of a trust established by the deceased prizewinner if a copy of the trust document or instrument has been filed with the corporation, along with a notarized letter of direction from the deceased prizewinner, and no written notice of revocation has been received by the corporation prior to the deceased prizewinner's death. Following a deceased prizewinner's death and prior to any payment to such a trustee, the corporation shall obtain from the trustee and each trust beneficiary a written agreement to indemnify and hold the corporation harmless with respect to any claims that may be asserted against the corporation arising from payment to or through the trust. Notwithstanding any other provisions of this chapter, any person, pursuant to an appropriate judicial order, shall be paid the prize to which a winner is entitled.
(b)
No ticket shall knowingly be sold to any person under the age of twenty-one (21).
(c)
No prize shall be paid arising from claimed tickets that are stolen, counterfeit, altered, fraudulent, unissued, produced or issued in error, unreadable, not received, unclaimed or not recorded by the corporation within applicable deadlines, lacking in captions that conform and agree with the play symbols as appropriate to the lottery game involved, or not in compliance with such additional specific rules and public or confidential validation and security tests of the corporation appropriate to the particular lottery game involved.
(d)
No particular prize in any lottery game shall be paid more than once, and in the event of a binding determination that more than one (1) claimant is entitled to a particular prize, the sole remedy of such claimants is the award to each of them an equal share in the prize.
(e)
A holder of a winning ticket from a Mississippi lottery game or from a multistate or multisovereign lottery game shall claim a prize within the timeframe provided for in administrative rules and regulations. If a valid claim is not made for a prize within the applicable period, the prize shall constitute an unclaimed prize for purposes of paragraph (c) of this subsection.
(f)
A person holding a winning lottery ticket in the amount of Six Hundred Dollars ($600.00) or more from a lottery game must provide his or her name and city or area of residence to the corporation to claim a prize. The corporation shall not disclose the identity of the person holding a winning lottery ticket without that person's written permission.
(3)
No prize shall be paid upon a ticket purchased or sold in violation of this chapter. Any such prize shall constitute an unclaimed prize for purposes of subsection (2)(c) of this section.
(4)
Any unclaimed prize money shall be added to the pool from which future prizes are to be awarded or used for special prize promotions.
(5)
The corporation is discharged of all liability upon payment of a prize.
(6)
No ticket shall be purchased by and no prize shall be paid to any of the following persons:
(a)
Any member of the board;
(b)
Any officer, or employee of the corporation;
(c)
Any vendor, including lottery retailers; or
(d)
Any spouse, child, brother, sister or parent residing as a member of the same household in the principal place of abode of any person listed in paragraph (a), (b) or (c) of this subsection.
Added by Laws, 2018EX1, ch. 2, SB 2001,§ 22, eff. 9/1/2018.