Unclaimed $1 Million Lottery Ticket Sold In Hennepin County Expires
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Who wants to be a millionaire? Everyone, you'd think. But someone holding a winning Powerball ticket sold in Hennepin County never came forward.
Exactly one year has passed, so now they're out of luck. But as WCCO's Reg Chapman explains, a new law is being proposed that would require the lottery to do more to notify winners.
Just last week, someone forfeited $100,000 in lottery winnings, and today another $1 million. Representative Joe Atkins is worried too many Minnesotans are losing out on big winnings.
"Well I'm proposing a way to get lottery winnings into the hands of the people who won it," Atkins said.
His legislation would require the Minnesota State Lottery to announce where a winning ticket has been sold. Then if no one claims the jackpot after 10 months, he wants the Minnesota State Lottery to review purchase records and store video to identify the winner.
Several states already name the location where winning tickets have been sold.
"That prompts the people that bought there to immediately check their tickets and so it's my understanding unclaimed winning tickets in those states is much lower than here in Minnesota," Atkins said.
Minnesota Lottery Director Ed Van Petten said some people forfeit small $1 prizes.
"It's very seldom that a major prize like this goes unclaimed, a lot of it on the Powerball or Mega Millions game is people are infrequent players and they just don't understand the prize levels," Van Petten said.
Last year, $1.4 million in lottery winnings went unclaimed. All that money actually goes into the state's General Fund.
"It just breaks my heart when it could change someone's life so dramatically," Van Petten said.
Today's forfeited jackpot isn't the biggest loser. Someone had a $1.3 million Gopher 5 jackpot ticket in 2007 that never got turned in.