The average unclaimed winnings has averaged $40 million to 50 million in the last several years, according to the California Lottery.
What to Know
- Claim deadlines are approaching for two lottery tickets worth $2 million apiece that were sold in Cathedral City and Sun Valley.
- The claim deadline for one ticket is coming up this weekend. The other expires next month.
- If claims aren't submitted, the prize money goes to public schools in California.
Now might be a good time to double-check those lottery tickets.
Deadlines are approaching for two lucky lottery players who bought tickets worth $2 million apiece earlier this year in Southern California.
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They include a Mega Millions ticket that matched five of six numbers in the March 5 drawing that will expire on Sunday. The ticket worth $2,151,945 was purchased at the Stater Bros. at 69255 Ramon Road in the Riverside County community of Cathedral City.
The ticket matched the numbers 2, 49, 50, 61, and 70, but missed the Mega number 14.
The winner has until 5 p.m. Friday to bring the ticket to one of California Lottery's nine state offices. If mailed with a claim form to California Lottery Headquarters in Sacramento, the ticket must be postmarked on or before Saturday.
The other $2 million ticket has a claim deadline of Sept. 19. The Powerball ticket matching five of six numbers and worth $2,462,356 was sold at the 7-Eleven at 12500 Roscoe Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley community of Sun Valley for the March 23 drawing.
The Powerball ticket matched the numbers 6, 23, 25, 34, and 51, but missed the Powerball number 3.
Powerball and Mega Millions winners who match five numbers have 180 days from the date of the draw to claim their winnings.
If claims aren't submitted, the prize money goes to public schools in California. More than $1.1 billion in unclaimed prizes has been raised for public education since tickets first went on sale in 1985.
