Winning $150,000 Powerball ticket expires soon — but no one has claimed the NC prize
A Powerball player scored a life-changing prize — but hasn’t claimed it yet.
Now, the $150,000 ticket is just days from expiring on Tuesday, June 4, according to the North Carolina Education Lottery.
“Search everywhere you keep your tickets and double-check any you have to see if you have the winning ticket,” Mark Michalko, executive director of the lottery, said in a news release. “We hope that whomever purchased this ticket comes forward to claim their prize.”
Time is running out after the Powerball player bought a ticket that matched all but one number picked in the drawing on Dec. 6. The lucky ticket was sold at Merchant’s Grocery in New Bern, a roughly 120-mile drive southeast from Raleigh.
The winning numbers: white balls 2-12-37-56-65 and red Powerball 21.
The player’s ticket matched four of the white balls and the red ball to win $50,000. Since the person spent an extra dollar on the Power Play option, the prize tripled to $150,000, according to game rules and drawing results.
The winner was one ball away from scoring the larger jackpot prize, estimated at $437 million the night of the drawing.
North Carolina gives lucky ticket holders about six months to cash in on their prizes in drawing games. But as of about 9:30 a.m. May 31, no one had come forward, a lottery spokesperson told McClatchy News in an email.
To get richer, the winner must come to the lottery’s headquarters in Raleigh no later than 5 p.m. June 4.
What to know about Powerball
To score the jackpot in the Powerball, a player must match all five white balls and the red Powerball.
The odds of scoring the jackpot prize are 1 in 292,201,338.
Tickets can be bought on the day of the drawing, but sales times and price vary by state.
Drawings are broadcast Saturdays, Mondays and Wednesdays at 10:59 p.m. ET and can be streamed online.
Powerball is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
This story was originally published May 31, 2024 at 11:22 AM with the headline "Winning $150,000 Powerball ticket expires soon — but no one has claimed the NC prize."
