Last hours for unclaimed $50 million Florida Lotto ticket

Sep 9, 2003, 3:58 am (3 comments)

Florida Lottery A $50 million FLorida Lotto jackpot winner either isn't aware of his fortune or was waiting almost literally to the last minute to claim the prize.

If the single winning ticket holder of the March 12 jackpot doesn't claim the prize by 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, the money goes back to the Lottery.

"That would be a bummer," said Lottery spokeswoman Sheila Griffin.

The ticket was sold in Miami-Dade County at Kohl's Food Market in North Bay Village.

"I think somebody lost that ticket, no doubt about it," said store owner Mohammad Azim Hossain. "I checked my tickets, I didn't match the number. I know all my customers, all my players nobody came and asked."

The winner doesn't have to show up at the Lottery's Tallahassee headquarters to make the claim just get to any Lottery retailer.

"They can go to any store and get it validated before midnight," Griffin said late Monday.

Lottery officials can only speculate who might have bought it.

"We thought that it could have been someone vacationing who might have bought a ticket and forgotten about it," Griffin said.

Lotto winners have 180 days to claim their prizes. Surprisingly it's not that uncommon for winners to lose out on millions. Since the game started in 1989, 19 Lotto jackpots have gone unclaimed.

But none have been nearly as big. So far the largest was $15 million that went unclaimed in 1991.

And Griffin can't recall someone coming in after the expiration to try to claim a prize.

"We've never had anyone come in and beg," she said.

Unclaimed prizes are used for lottery promotions or prizes, such as a scratch ticket that included Harley-Davidson motorcycle giveaways along with cash prizes.

"It helps us support our games and the more tickets we sell, the more we help education," Griffin said.

Naples Daily News

Comments

sbrown112

50 million going down the drain!!

Littleoldlady's avatarLittleoldlady

50 million gone .........gone.......gone.

fja's avatarfja

some goof that probably bought a ticket while on vacation is my bet, like they said....its probably sitting their majesticaly in the zipper pocket of his carry on bag screaming for someone to come along and see it....

End of comments
Subscribe to this news story