Local News
$14.52 Million Lotto Claimed in Abilene Two Days Before Its Expiration
Did you know that lottery tickets expire? According to the official Texas Lottery website, “A ticket holder forfeits any claim to a prize for a draw game after the expiration of the 180th day following the draw date; and for an instant game after the expiration of the 180th day following the official ‘end of game’ as determined by the Commission.” Recently, the Star-Telegram reports that a winner in Abilene barely made the cut in redeeming their prize. In fact, they claimed their prize only two days before the ticket’s expiration date!
The Abilene winner claimed a $14.25 million Lotto Texas jackpot prize and opted to receive their payment in a lump sum of $10 million, meaning they’ll definitely be having a happy holiday season.
The winning ticket with the numbers 3-4-6-23-34-54 was purchased back in mid-June at an H-E-B which will also receive a prize of $142,696.06. There’s no report on how the winner suddenly realized that they had won a huge amount of money, but if they had missed the time to redeem their prize, they wouldn’t be the first. According to the Star-Telegram, the Texas Lottery has accumulated over $1 billion in unclaimed prize money since 1992. The funds are given back to the State of Texas.
