Powerball officials are urging players to check their tickets as a $2 million prize from a December 2023 drawing is set to expire today.
The winning ticket was purchased at the Safeway Fuel Mini C-2612 in Aurora, Colorado, a suburb of Denver. The player matched five numbers—known as a “Match 5”—and had added the Power Play option, which doubled the original $1 million prize to $2 million.
If the prize goes unclaimed by the end of the day, the money will be returned to the Colorado Lottery’s proceeds fund.
“Colorado has thousands of unclaimed prizes every year,” the state lottery said on its website. “Most are small amounts like $1 or $2. But when a large prize is about to expire, we do our best to alert the public and find the winner.”
That same day, December 16, another Powerball prize was won in Louisiana. A ticket bought at Meraux Food Store on Paris Road in Chalmette matched four white balls, earning the player $50,000. Like the Colorado prize, this winning ticket is also set to expire today. If the Louisiana player had selected the Power Play, the prize would have doubled to $100,000.
In Chicago, another unclaimed lottery prize worth $1.1 million remains outstanding from a drawing held on September 8, 2024. The winner still has three months left to claim it.
Meanwhile, in Minnesota, one lucky player has already come forward to claim a $276,186 prize from the state’s North 5 game. The winning ticket was drawn on May 31, and the retailer—The Corner Store—will receive a $1,000 bonus for selling the jackpot winner.
North 5 is a Minnesota-exclusive lottery game where players select five numbers between 1 and 34. The game offers a heavily weighted prize pool, with four correct numbers earning just $50, despite odds of 1 in 1,919.
By comparison, the odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292 million. Mega Millions jackpot odds are even steeper at 1 in 302 million.
Players are encouraged to check old tickets, as life-changing prizes may be closer than they think.
