Check out the Absurd Tale of a Lottery Winner Who Didn't Turn up to Claim a $36 Million Prize
Lotteries and their jackpot winning have played a major part of the United States gaming and entertainment culture. With time lotteries evolved from a way to raise funds for building, construction, and supporting community projects into reliable sources of income. Powerball and Mega Million are the popular lotteries that attract a majority of Americans. But now, absurd cases are coming out of these lottery games.
Dive into Mega Millions' journey and its gameplay
Mega Millions first started in 1996 popularly known as 'The Big Game' back then. The fun game was initiated with just six states in 1996 including Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Virginia. But now it is played in 45 states and is considered the country's most-played multistate jackpot game. Mega Millions is all about drawings and the gamer's luck.
The players can purchase a Mega Millions lottery ticket for just $2.00 from your nearby stores. Some sell at bus stands, airports, and supermarkets. The game revolves around selecting six numbers from two separate lists. Five numbers must be selected from 1-70 and the mega ball number from 1-25. The gamers win the jackpot or the winning price based on matching all the six numbers that are displayed on the drawing display. Mega Millions winners can select a lumpsum pay out which is simpler, as they get the whole jackpot prize in one go. But just in case they opt for the monthly payouts, they will get the first payment and will receive 29 payments each year with each going 5% up on a yearly basis. There are several wins apart from the jackpot i.e. 5 white balls plus the mega win.
| Number of Balls | Winning Price |
| 5 White Balls | $1,000,000 |
| 4 White Balls + Mega Ball | $10,000 |
| 4 White Balls | $500 |
| 3 White Balls + Mega Ball | $200 |
| 3 White Balls | $10 |
| 1 White Ball+ Mega Ball | $4 |
| Just the Mega Ball number | $2 |
The dismal tale of a $36 Million void ticket
Mega Millions and Powerball lottery games have seen many incidents where some falsely come to claim the prize with some not even claiming their jackpot prizes. One such instance happened when a $36 million Mega Millions lottery ticket was announced as void and was canceled as nobody came to demand their prize. The deadline to take away the prize was before February 11th, therefore the organization decided to donate 80% of the amount to charity or educational funds and the rest 20% will be added to the prize pool for the next drawing.
So the person who didn’t come to claim the prize purchased the lottery ticket from the Publix store located in Jacksonville on 15th August. The ticket had the winning numbers 18-39-42-57-63 and the Mega Ball number 7. Michelle Griner from the Florida Lottery clarified that the ticket has been classified as void and it has been marked as the only unclaimed ticket in the 2023 year. This is not the first time that a winner did not show up to claim the prize. In 2021, California witnessed a $26 million uncredited prize and one $77 million Powerball ticket in Georgia in 2011.