While Bucks County residents wait to see who the newest millionaire 300-times over is, a Pennsylvania Lottery spokeswoman suggested not holding their breath to find out if its one of our own.
Most big lottery winners wait a few weeksto months, before claiming a prize, according to Ewa Swope, press secretary for the lottery. After all, they have up to a year from the drawing date to stake their claim.
“We also encourage winners of large prizes to speak with trustworthy professionals who are trained to offer counsel on such matters,” Swope said. “This includes a qualified financial advisor or an attorney with experience in financial management or working with lottery winners.”
The Pennsylvania Lottery announced Monday that the winning ticket for more than a half-billion dollar prize — the ninth largest ever for Mega Millions — was sold at a 7-Eleven in the 2700 block of Trenton Road in Middletown.
The ticket matched all five white balls drawn, 6-9-17-18-48, and the yellow Mega Ball 8, to win a jackpot worth an estimated annuity value of $516 million, or $349.3 million cash, less applicable withholding.
The 7-Eleven ticket holder will join a rare group of Pennsylvania jackpot winners.
Only two other Mega Million Jackpot tickets have been purchased in Pennsylvania —in Allegheny and North Cumberland counties —in 2014 and 2015, according to the lottery commission.
Only one Bucks County lottery retailer and two in Montgomery County have sold winning Powerball Jackpot tickets to one of the 18 Pennsylvania winning ticket holderssince 2002.
Winners are not known until prizes are claimed and tickets are validated, but it is “very infrequent”large jackpot prizes go unclaimed, according to Swope.
“The vast majority of big Draw Game prizes are claimed by winners and only a small percentage of prizes expire after one year,” she added.
More on newest winner:Check your ticket! Bucks County store sold $516 million Mega Millions lottery ticket
Lottery officials do not know the amount of the largest unclaimed prize.
Millions of dollars go unclaimed each year
But officials do know that millions, in fact, tens of millionsof dollars go unclaimed each year.
For fiscal year 2019-20 unclaimed Draw Game, including Mega-Millions and Powerball, and Fast Play prizes totaled more than $20 million.So far this fiscal year, more than $12 million has gone unclaimed as of April 30, 2021.
When lottery winners don’t come forward, the unclaimed prize money remains in the Lottery Fund which pays for programs benefiting older Pennsylvania residents, Swope said.
While big jackpot winners are rare, Bucks and Montgomery counties have a history of selling winning lottery tickets.
As of 2016, Bucks County was among the winningest counties for lottery players, according to Pennsylvania Lottery Commission data. Montgomery and Bucks counties ranked third and fourth respectively among the state’s 67 counties for lottery payouts for fiscal 2014-15.
In more recent years, Bucks County lottery retailers have sold several winning tickets worth $1 million or more.
More lottery winners:$3M PA lottery ticket sold in Montco
Two of the four $1 million top-prize winning tickets in Pennsylvania Lottery's New Year's Millionaire Raffle drawing, held January 6, 2018, were sold in Bucks County, at the Quakertown Food Mart and Southampton Beverage.
In January 2020, a Bensalem convenience store sold a $1 million-winning scratch-off ticket. The next month, a Pennsylvania Lottery scratch-off ticket worth $3 million was sold at a 7-Eleven in the 500 block of West Lincoln Highway in Middletown.
A Willow Grove lottery retailer sold a $3 million-winning scratch off ticket —the top prize for the"$3 Million Extravaganza" game —in March.
A 2019 fight over ownership of a $4.15 million winning Match 6 Lotto ticket pitted a chain supermarket cashier against hercorporate parent company.
Pipersville resident Beverlie Seltzer, a cashier at Acme Markets in Doylestown, claimed the winning ticket was hers because she bought the "mistake" unsold ticket the day after the lottery drawing when she realized it had a winning number.
Acme representatives, however, claimed the company owns all unsold tickets.
Acme sued Seltzer in Bucks County Court.Last January, Judge James McMaster ruled Acme is the rightful owner of the ticket.
When does that winning lottery ticket expire?
According to the Pennsylvania Lottery Commission:
Draw game prizes, like Mega-Millions,expire one year from the game's draw date.
- Scratch-Offs prizeexpire one year after the game's end-sale date listed at palottery.com.
- Fast Play prizes expire one year from the purchase date.
