According to a Virginia Lottery spokesperson, someone is in danger of throwing away a quarter-million-dollar prize.
A Mega Millions ticket that is now worth $250,000 will become a worthless slip of paper, unless the winner claims the prize before 5:00 p.m. on June 20.
The ticket was bought for the December 23, 2011, Mega Millions drawing at the 7-Eleven at 325 Kellam Road in Virginia Beach. That ticket turned out to be a $250,000 winner.
No one has claimed the prize. By law, winning tickets in Virginia expire 180 days after the drawing.
The winning numbers for that drawing were 3-5-8-18-29 and the Mega Ball was 14. The ticket matched the first five numbers and missed only the Mega Ball number.
The December 23 drawing had an estimated jackpot of $173 million. This ticket was the only one in Virginia to win $250,000 in that drawing.
All Virginia Lottery unclaimed prize money goes to the state Literary Fund. The Literary Fund is used solely for educational purposes, such as school construction, renovation and teacher retirement funding. Since its inception in 1988, the Lottery has transferred more than $211 million in unclaimed prizes to the Literary Fund.
Whoever has that ticket should contact the Virginia Lottery immediately at 757-825-7800 or 804-692-7000.
Mega Millions drawings are held Tuesday and Friday nights at 11:00. Drawings are broadcast on TV stations across Virginia and streamed live at http://www.valottery.com and on the Lottery’s Facebook page. The odds of winning the $250,000 prize in Mega Millions are 1 in 3,904,701.
The Virginia Lottery generates approximately $1.2 million per day for Virginia’s K-12 public schools. Operating entirely on revenue from the sale of Lottery products, rather than tax dollars, the Virginia Lottery generated more than $444 million for Virginia’s public schools in Fiscal Year 2011. That represents about 8 percent of state funding for public education in Virginia. For more information, visit http://www.valottery.com. Follow the Virginia Lottery on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Please play responsibly.
