Major Florida Lottery prize is about to expire
By Kate Northrop
Time is running out to claim a $44 million Florida Lotto jackpot, with just mere weeks left for the winner to step forward before the winning ticket expires.
A Florida Lotto jackpot worth $44 million might go unclaimed, with a little over two weeks left for the winner to come forward before it's gone for good.
Just two days ago, a Florida Lottery Fantasy 5 prize worth more than $64,000 went unclaimed. Unless someone else steps up with the ticket for this multi-million-dollar jackpot, we might be seeing an even more monumental prize go unclaimed as well.
The $44 million Florida Lotto prize was won by a single ticket that matched all six numbers in the June 14, 2023 drawing: 9, 13 15, 46, 51, and 52. The ticket was purchased at the Sunoco Express on North Orange Blossom Trail in Kissimmee.
"Players who may have purchased a Florida Lotto ticket at this retail location are encouraged to check their tickets from the June 14 drawing," the Lottery advised in a press release.
The deadline to claim the $44 million prize is Mon., Dec. 11, 2023 at midnight Eastern Time.
Players have 180 days from the draw date to claim any draw game prize, but draw game prizes for which a single-payment cash option is available must be claimed within the first 60 days after the applicable draw date to elect the cash option.
The Lottery also clarified that the winning ticket can be validated at any Florida Lottery retailer, but whoever owns it must present it at Lottery headquarters in Tallahassee to claim the jackpot.
The Florida Lotto jackpot is won by matching all six numbers drawn in any order. The odds of matching all six drawn numbers are 1 in 22,957,480. Florida Lotto features a progressive jackpot that increases each time a drawing occurs without a jackpot winner.
Florida Lotto drawings take place every Wednesday and Saturday at 11:00 pm Eastern Time.
All winning numbers, prizes and odds can be found on Lottery Post's Florida Lottery Results page right after each drawing.
Thanks to FlaMom for the tip.
If no one wants to claim it, I'll fall on my sword and take it.
If it goes unclaimed does it go back into the lottery pot ? What does the lottery do with the money when a ticket 🎫🎟️ goes unclaimed? Does anyone know ?
Straight from https://www.flalottery.com/faq
What happens to prizes that are not claimed?
Florida law requires that 80 percent of unclaimed prize funds from expired tickets be transferred directly to the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund. The remaining 20 percent is returned to the prize pool from which future prizes are awarded or used for special prize promotions.
Should a POWERBALL® or MEGA MILLIONS® jackpot ticket not be claimed within the 180 days of the applicable draw date, the funds to pay the unclaimed jackpot will be returned to the lottery members in their proportion of sales for the jackpot rollover series.
There might be a slight ray of hope for this ticket yet to be claimed. There may be something going on that's invisible to both The Florida Lottery and the general public. After all, it is the equivalent of a small PowerBall jackpot amount of $44,000,000.
If (and that's a big "if") the winner is waiting to claim the 44 million at the last minute, it could be that they will claim it anonymously for 90 days using Florida Statute 24.1051. That would grant them a total 9 months of privacy which is plenty of time to disappear. And... by the time the winner's name could legally be revealed, the news of a 44 million dollar jackpot win would be long forgotten.
But the story gets even better than that!! The easiest and fastest way to find out any winners name of a large jackpot is by using The Florida Lottery's website. On their Florida Lotto page they have a report called "The Jackpot Winners & Retailer Information Report." One click on it and you get a report showing the name of the jackpot winner and where the ticket was sold. BUT!! If the winner uses Florida Statute 24.1051, all it says in the winners name field of the report is "Exempt per F.S. 24.1051" The report lists a history of winners names of previous jackpots going back many years. Here's the interesting part - since May of 2022 when F.S. 24.1051 was enacted, the report shows "Exempt per F.S. 24.1051" for jackpots won MORE THAN 90 DAYS AGO! It appears to me that the Florida Lottery is not updating the report with the actual jackpot winners name after 90 days has elapsed.
I think they'll reveal the jackpot winners name if somebody asks them for it, but as far as going back into the report and updating it, they're not bothering to do it. Which means winners will receive far more than the temporary 90 days of anonymousness the law was designed to provide. So hopefully if the winner is waiting to the last minute to claim their 44 million dollar jackpot and chooses to use F.S. 24.1051, they may never have their name made public. Let's hope that's the case. G5
Counting Down to 12/11/2023:
They won in June--probably a lost ticket.
11/30 Still unclaimed; sold in Orange Blossom Trail in Kissimmee. Likely a tourist bought the quick pick ticket. If they still have the ticket what will they think of when they finally realize its the jackpot winning ticket.
Tick Tock!
Sorry: