WASHINGTON – If you bought a lottery ticket in Maryland, you may want to double check whether it’s one of the two unclaimed $1 million winners sold in the state – one of which was sold in the D.C. area.
Time is running out for the winners of a $1 million Mega Millions prize and a $1 million Powerball prize to claim their spoils.
There are just days left for the winner of the Jan. 8 Mega Millions drawing to get the $1 million prize. The ticket was sold at the Royal Farms store at 7701 German Hill Rd. in Dundalk, Maryland, and matches all five white balls – 11, 39, 51, 57 and 75 – but did not match the Mega Ball, which was 2. The claiming deadline is 4:30 p.m. Friday, July 8.
The winner of the Jan. 13 Powerball drawing has until 4:30 p.m. on July 13 to claim the prize. The ticket was purchased at the 7-Eleven at 4907 Annapolis Rd. in Bladensburg, Maryland. The ticket matches all five white balls – 4, 8, 19, 27, 34 – but did not match the Power Ball, which was 10.
Winners of all Maryland Lottery drawing games have 182 days after the drawings to claim their prizes at lottery headquarters in Baltimore, said Maryland Lottery spokesman Doug Lloyd.
It’s relatively common for big winners to miss out on their winnings, Lloyd said. Often the ticket holders are too focused on the large jackpot and don’t check to see if they have won anything else, he added.
“They know they didn’t win the jackpot but don’t know they have some winnings on their hands,” Lloyd said.
In Maryland, Mega Millions has about 100,000 or more winners per drawing, and on the Jan. 13 Powerball, Lloyd said there were 561,000 winners. And while not all winners score the big bucks, some people can still win a significant amount of money, Lloyd said.
He recommends checking tickets before and after drawings.
“Just because you didn’t win the jackpot doesn’t mean you didn’t win anything,” he said.
If the prize is not claimed, it goes into the Maryland Lottery’s Unclaimed Prize Fund, which helps pay for the lottery’s second-chance contests and promotions.
Those who bought lottery tickets in Virginia may want to re-examine their tickets too: The Virginia Lottery announced Tuesday that three winning tickets from the historic $1.5 billion Powerball drawing sold in the commonwealth still haven’t been turned in for the prize.
Maryland Lottery’s Wednesday announcement came as lottery fever reached a fever pitch. No jackpot-winning ticket was sold in the Tuesday night’s Mega Millions drawing, increasing the prize to an estimated $508 million. With slightly better odds than the Powerball game, it’s rare that nearly four months pass without a winning Mega Millions jackpot. Tuesday marked the 34th time the jackpot has rolled over without a winner. The previous record was 22 rolls.
