Somebody bought a lottery ticket in Minnesota last summer. That ticket, whether they realize it or not, is now worth $1 million — but it isn’t going to be worth anything if it expires without being claimed.
The Mega Millions drawing on July 29, 2022 resulted in one of those spectacular billion-dollar-plus jackpots. It also yielded 26 second-place prizes of $1 million each.
Two of these were sold in Minnesota. According to the Minnesota Lottery’s Unclaimed Prizes webpage, one of these million-dollar prizes has not been claimed as of this writing.
When do Minnesota lottery tickets expire?
The Minnesota Lottery FAQ says:
“A: Tickets for lotto games (those printed by a lottery machine, like Powerball, Lotto America, Gopher 5, etc.) expire one year from the date of the drawing. Scratch tickets expire one year after the game officially ends.”
Where was the winning ticket sold?
This lucky ticket was sold at Casey’s General Store #4267, a Minnesota Lottery retailer. The location is shown in the map below.
What were the winning numbers?
This video of the Mega Millions drawing for July 29, 2022 shows the winning numbers.
Are the astronomically large jackpots the best way to go?
As I mentioned earlier, this drawing produced a “spectacular billion-dollar-plus jackpot” along with 26 second-place $1 million prizes. The jackpot in this case was estimated at $1.28 billion but let’s call it an even billion ($1,000,000,000) to simplify the math.
Instead of creating 26 new millionaires, this drawing could have created 926 of them, along with a big jackpot. With a jackpot prize of $100 million, 900 more $1 million prizes could have been awarded.
The state lotteries thrive on the excitement generated by people’s life-changing reactions to winning a substantial cash prize. Awarding a billion-dollar prize certainly creates plenty of excitement.
What about awarding a 100-million-dollar prize AND 900 additional million-dollar prizes? I believe this would result in at least as much excitement as that of the billion-dollar prize. And the 900 new millionaires would become passionate lottery supporters forever more.
Did you buy a Mega Millions ticket in Minnesota last July?
If so, check those numbers! An unexpected million dollars would be a high point in anybody’s day!
What do you think of my suggestion to reduce the size of the huge jackpots — they could still be massively life-changing — and award many more second-level prizes instead? This would improve the chances of winning a substantial prize, although the likelihood would still be vanishingly small. Leave a comment if you want to share your thoughts about this.
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