$1 Million Lottery Prize Goes Unclaimed, Split Between Boring Worthy Causes

Did you buy a Powerball ticket in an Indiana Circle K convenience store in April? Do your usual numbers include 1, 36, 40, 52, and 53? Um, you should probably sit down.

Those numbers won the $1 million runner-up prize in the Powerball drawing six months ago. Since the ticket went unclaimed, after six months the Powerball prize reverts to the state lottery that sold it.

According to a lottery spokesperson, this isn’t unusual. Every year, about $10 million in prizes go unclaimed in Indiana alone. That’s about 1.5% of the Hoosier Lottery’s total sales.

In some states, unclaimed prizes go back into the pot for future prizes. In Indiana, the store where the winning ticket was sold still gets its … cut? bounty? Whatever you call the ten thousand bucks that the store gets when a winning ticket is sold there. The rest goes to boring but worthy causes: retirement pension funds for firefighters and teachers, and a fund that offsets excise tax on vehicles registered in Indiana.

$1 million Powerball ticket goes unclaimed [Indianapolis Star]

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