A Florida lottery ticket worth $44 million is unclaimed and set to expire in just a few days
- There is an unclaimed lottery ticket in Florida worth $44 million.
- The winner has just a week left to claim the prize.
An unclaimed lottery ticket worth $44 million awaits its winner, who has just a week left to claim the life-changing sum.
Florida Lottery said in a news release that somebody purchased the winning Quick Pick ticket on June 14 from Sunoco Express in Kissimmee, Florida.
The winning numbers were: 09 - 13 - 15 - 46 - 51 - 52.
The winner has until December 11 — next Monday — to claim the prize. After that, it will be too late.
The Florida Lottery said that anyone who purchased a lottery ticket at that specific gas station was "encouraged" to check if they were the lucky winner.
And because it is such a large prize, the participant would also need to validate the ticket in person at the Florida Lottery headquarters in Tallahassee.
While prizes up to $599 can be claimed at any retailer, those up to $250,000 require a visit to a district office, and anything exceeding that amount necessitates a trip to the Tallahassee headquarters, according to the lottery's guidelines.
This is not the first time that a major lottery win has almost gone unclaimed.
In August 2022, a man in Michigan almost forgot about a ticket he bought and left in his car for weeks. The ticket turned out to be worth $390,000.
And last month, another man in Michigan won more than $400,000 in a lottery he didn't know he'd entered.Emily Irwin, who works for Wells Fargo and advises lottery winners, told Business Insider in October that many people don't realize that winners are given little support or guidance once they win.
Winners should seek guidance on everything from whether to take the money as a lump sum or an annuity to learning how to say 'no' to family members seeking to cash in on the windfall, she said.