Year-old $250,000 lottery ticket must be redeemed by Tuesday

 Friday, January 16, 2009
Year-old $250,000 lottery ticket must be redeemed by Tuesday
Charlie Cain / Detroit News Lansing Bureau

Lottery Strategies

The holder of a winning $250,000 lottery ticket had better beat feet to Michigan Lottery headquarters in Lansing.

The ticket, sold at Joslyn Market in Pontiac, must be redeemed by 4 p.m. Tuesday or it won't be worth the paper it's printed on.

"We were speculating on who might have bought it and it came down to a couple of guys," said Eddie Shouneyia who works in the family-owned market.

"We think the winner might have ended up losing the ticket, otherwise it would have been turned in by now with the way the economy is. If it was lost, that's a shame."

The winning Mega Millions ticket is from the Jan. 18, 2008, drawing. The numbers were 12-22-33-43-44 with the gold mega ball 15.

Lottery tickets must be redeemed within one year of the drawing date. Since the expiration date falls on Sunday and state government offices are closed Monday in honor of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, the winner has until the close of business Tuesday to collect. The winner is urged to contact the Lottery public relations division at (517) 373-1237 to set up an appointment to collect the prize.

About $27.4 million worth of winning tickets were never cashed in last year. Since the lottery debuted in 1972, more than a half-billion dollars -- $530 million -- has gone unclaimed, including 13 prizes of $1 million or more.

Unclaimed prize money goes into the state School Aid Fund, which supports K-12 education. Last year, the lottery sent $740 million to schools, and paid $1.32 billion in prizes on $2.33 billion in ticket sales.