What happens if the Mega Millions $1.337 BILLION lottery ticket goes unclaimed?
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What happens if the recent $1.337 billion Mega Millions lottery ticket goes unclaimed? The ticket drawn July 29 was sold in Illinois, and the winner has as yet not stepped forward.
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They have 12 months to make their move. So what happens if the ticket goes unclaimed after that time?
In this video, podcaster and Powerball winner Timothy Schultz reveals the details.
The single Mega Millions lottery ticket was sold in Des Plaines, Illinois. The winning numbers were 13-36-45-57-67 with the Mega Ball of 14.
No one really knows yet, but it is possible the winner of this jackpot could be speaking with their financial advisors - accountants and attorneys - before claiming the ticket.
However, what happens if the winner doesn’t realize that they won? Or worse, they have misplaced the ticket?
It’s more common than you think. Patricia Pearson didn't know she had a $1 million winning Powerball ticket until she was tracked down by CCTV.
In the state of Illinois you have 12 months to claim the lottery prize. That gives the winner time to get organised. But however, there is a shorter deadline that is also very important.
According to the Illinois lottery rules, a winner has 60 days from the day of the drawing to choose between the cash vs. annuity options. That means they can choose approximately half of the prize right away in the cash option, or the entire prize over a period of 29 years.
If they do not choose within this 60-day period, they will be forced to claim it as an annuity. This option is to receive a one-off payment of $780.5 million.
Would you take cash or annuity for the Mega Millions jackpot? Yahoo Finance discusses what viewers voted. VIDEO: Yahoo FInance
Many lottery winners choose the cash option for a number of reasons. Often they can invest it and make more money through investments than they would if the lottery paid the whole prize out over the 29 year term.
So what happens if no one comes forward to claim the prize after 1 year? If that’s the case, all the prize money will be returned to the states it came from. And in the state of Illinois itself, the unclaimed money will go to the Common School Fund to support kindergarten through twelfth-grade education.
Historically, there have been other major lottery prizes that went unclaimed. This includes:
A prize in 2002 for $68 million.
A $46 million-dollar Mega Millions ticket in NY in 2006.
A $77 million-dollar Powerball ticket that went unclaimed in Georgia in 2011.
Then the winner must make a decision whether to remain anonymous. The rules in Illinois say that anyone winning at least $250,000 can ask to keep their identity secret. To do that, a request has to be made on the Illinois Lottery Winner Claiming Form.
ABOUT: This is the fifth Mega Millions jackpot won to date this year. The fun started with a $426 million prize in California on January 28, followed by $128 million in New York on March 8, $110 million in Minnesota on April 12 (that state’s very first Mega Millions jackpot win), and $20 million in Tennessee on April 15.
