In about two weeks, on May 5, a Powerball ticket purchased in Michigan last year and worth $1 million will expire.
This isn’t the first time a large winning ticket went unclaimed. Last month in Maryland, no one came forward to claim a $10 million Powerball prize.
Powerball’s top prize for Wednesday night’s drawing was $370 million. Making the unclaimed prizes seem like pocket change. However, some jackpot prizes also have gone unclaimed over the years in both Powerball and Mega Millions lotteries.
They range from a $16.5 million prize (one-third of a $50 million jackpot split three ways) from a ticket purchased in Florida in 2013 to a $77.1 million prize from a ticket purchased in Georgia in 2011.
On top of the multistate games, there are state-specific lotteries with prizes that also never make it into the hands of winners.
In California in 2016, no one came forward to claim a single lottery prize worth $63 million.
The unclaimed money is handled differently depending on the state. In some states, the funds must go back to players in the form of bonus prizes or second-chance contests. In other places, the unclaimed amounts also may go towards specific purposes such as education funding.
The chance of winning Mega Millions is 1 in about 302 million. For Powerball, it’s 1 in 292 million.
