Lottery News

If you are in West Virginia and purchased a Powerball ticket within the last six months, it might be time to check your pockets, drawers, and anywhere else you might stash your tickets. An unclaimed ticket worth a staggering $1 million is set to expire in just two weeks, according to West Virginia Lottery officials.

The lucky ticket was sold at a GoMart in the small town of Hinton, and it matched the first five numbers but not the Powerball number in the June 6, 2020 drawing. Now the West Virginia Lottery is urging players who purchased tickets in the area around this date to check their numbers.

The winning numbers from that draw were 1, 17, 38, 68 and 69 with a Powerball of 18. The Power Play multiplier was 2X.

If you find yourself the lucky holder, remember the ticket must be presented and validated before winnings can be claimed. When the $1 million ticket expires, it means the money will go to the state's fund for senior citizen programs.

Nobody has come forward yet to claim the winnings, and Lottery officials say this is the first time they've had an unclaimed ticket for such a considerable sum since 2006.

John Myers, director of the West Virginia Lottery, said, "We encourage all of our players to check their tickets. Please take a moment, go and check because we want to make sure you haven't missed your opportunity to be our next millionaire."

In fact, state lottery officials still continue to spread the dream of instant wealth across the state with more games and more chances to win. But as the rules say, winnings must be claimed within a 180-day period, so if the lucky numbers are yours, make haste to claim your prize!

It isn't unheard of for substantial lottery winnings to go unclaimed. Across the 44 jurisdictions in the U.S. where the lottery is legal, about $2 billion in prizes goes uncollected every year. So the odds of winning might be low, but the odds of winners not claiming their prize seem surprisingly high. It could be that people forget about their tickets, misplace them or simply don't realize they've won.

On a final note, make it a habit to check your lottery tickets regularly. Winnings can slip through your fingers just as easily as the ticket itself. The precious piece of paper could make you a millionaire. And if you have the winning $1 million ticket from the June 6 drawing lurking somewhere, it's time to step forward and claim what's rightfully yours before time runs out.