The champagne wishes and caviar dreams of the person in Indiana holding April's winning Powerball ticket will officially remain just those — wishes and dreams, if not a nightmare — after failing to claim their $1 million prize.
Indiana's 180-day window for lottery winners to come forward came to a close Monday for the unlucky soul who purchased the lucky ticket in the April 10 drawing at the Circle K in Jeffersonville.
"It is rare, but not unheard of, that a prize of such magnitude goes unclaimed," Indiana Lottery spokeswoman Stephanie McFarland said.
When it comes to "unclaimed magnitude," whoever missed out can at least take solace in the fact they didn't set a record for being the biggest loser among gambling Hoosiers: In 2002, someone in Indiana missed out on a $50 million Powerball jackpot, McFarland said.
Absentminded lottery players can provide big boosts for state coffers, because unclaimed prize money is retained by the state. Chuck Strutt of the Multi-State Lottery Association told CNNMoney in a recent article that $800 million in lottery winnings went unclaimed nationwide in 2011.
McFarland told CNN that the state makes no special effort — such as reviewing Circle K's surveillance tape — to try to figure out who this, or any other "winner," is.
"If only we had had this conversation the other day — before the deadline," she told CNN. "Maybe (the winner) would have seen the press coverage and been reminded that they had purchased the ticket."
What a Loss! Anyways- moving forward.
Why even bother to buy a ticket if it's not going to be checked? Talk about throwing away money, literally.
I sure don't get it. I check my tics asap.
I have messed up by checking the #'s for the wrong draw date but realized it before throwing the tickets away. Maybe that's what happened in this case.
That money should be put back ASAP, into the next draw, but you know that's not gonna happen. RIPOFF!!!
it happened in california the winner didn't show up till the store video was released to the public and she came forward so it really depends on which state you live in . checking lottery ticket might sound easy to some but some people are still not sure if their car uses diesel or regular fuel and some get lost trying to take a short cut back home so am not surprised . what surprises me is that this silly states still don't scan your ID into the system so when you win they can come to your home with ballons and flowers and camera to give you the good news since they already know who you are . On their slip they should have pls check "surprise me" option for home cash deliveries lol
The Connecticut Lottery website advertised for half the summer that a million dollar Powerball ticket from April was still outstanding. I 'turned away for a minute', and lost track of whether anyone claimed it.
LP members take a little more interest in lotteries and the tickets they buy than other folks. Those folks wouldn't get why we are interested in lotteries and what other lottery player are doing either.
Good point.
How I really wish that there will be a system that will notify the winner in case they overlook their tickets. It will also be helpful if they can claim the winnings without the ticket because the system will identify the winner. However since we don't have that kind of system yet, winners should take good care of their tickets.