Hours dwindling for Lotto winner to claim $3.5 million prize
Thursday, February 15, 2007 posted 02:03 AM EST
HARTFORD, Conn. --Lottery terminals at hundreds of stores statewide were slated to remain on late into Wednesday night, offering a final chance for the winner of an unclaimed $3.5 million jackpot to come forward.
The ticket, sold for the drawing on Feb. 14, 2006, becomes worthless unless its owner validates the numbers at a lottery terminal or claims the jackpot in person or by mail before 11:59 p.m.
Lottery officials are not yet saying where the winning ticket was sold, but that retailer will receive a $10,000 commission regardless of whether the ticket's owner comes forward.
The winning ticket bears the following numbers: 15, 17, 19, 26, 37 and 38.
A lump-sum payout equals about $2.2 million before taxes, while taking the jackpot over 21 years would translate to about $167,000 in pretax income annually.
"We really do not want to see this money go unclaimed," said lottery spokeswoman Diane Patterson. "We would love to issue someone a check."
About 450 stores statewide planned to keep their lottery terminals activated until midnight, and the lottery corporation's main computers also will remain online just in case someone submits the ticket before the deadline passes.
Connecticut Lottery officials do not know whether the buyer even knows that he or she is a millionaire in the making.
They also have not yet disclosed whether the buyer selected the numbers or chose a computer-generated Quick Pick Ticket.
Lottery officials will not know immediately Thursday morning whether the winner has come forward because they must wait a few days to ensure the ticket does not arrive in the mail, Patterson said.
If it is mailed and postmarked by 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, it still qualifies, she said.
"This is the lottery business and we deal in odds and chances every single day, so that could happen," she said.
If the jackpot goes unclaimed, lottery CEO Jim Vance will determine whether to put the $2.2 million lump-sum prize in the state's general fund, use it to augment other lottery prizes or help pay for agency promotions, Patterson said.
As of Wednesday morning, about 140 people had submitted affidavits claiming they bought and misplaced the winning ticket, detailing when and where they purchased it in hopes of claiming the windfall.
The lottery is in the process of weeding out those that listed the wrong store, municipality, purchase date and other details -- and, as of Wednesday morning, it appeared that none so far matched specifics of the winner.
Jackpots totaling $33.4 million have gone unclaimed since the Lotto game began in 1983. They include a $5 million windfall on an unclaimed ticket sold at a New Britain liquor store in 1995.
The largest unclaimed lottery jackpot in Connecticut is $5.8 million. The winner, Clarence Jackson Jr. of Hamden, tried to cash the winning ticket three days after the 1996 deadline, but was turned away.
The state House of Representatives has supported Jackson's quest to have the one-year deadline waived several times, but the state Senate has rejected each appeal.
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