Speak now or forever hold your winning ticket

By Darlene Prois

Star Tribune.

There may be millionaires among us, but their luck has an expiration date.

A Gopher 5 ticket worth $1,489,175 is out there somewhere, and the holder has only a few days left to claim the prize.

"Handing out checks is my favorite part of the job," said Clint Harris, executive director of the Minnesota State Lottery. "I'd like to do that one more time before the 17th."

That's when the ticket with the winning numbers 4-12-13-24-35 will expire, one year after it was drawn. If that happens, the state of Minnesota becomes the winner, with the money going to the state's general fund.

This could become the largest Minnesota lottery jackpot ever to go unclaimed, but it wouldn't be the first. Each year, Minnesota players neglect to claim an average of $6 million to $7 million in lottery winnings, Harris said.

Also unclaimed are four $200,000 Powerball tickets from drawings on Feb. 15, Aug. 2, Sept. 13 and Jan. 3. Players have one year from the drawing dates to claim prizes.

"These are significant prizes for people," said Harris. "But we've awarded $3.2 billion in prizes over the years, so in the scheme of things, they're small numbers."

Lottery officials haven't begun to worry about hearing from one of two $1 million winners of the Minnesota Millionaire Raffle Game. Lynton Lindell of Cumberland, Wis., claimed one prize last Wednesday, two days after the winning numbers were drawn. Who holds the remaining $1 million ticket, with numbers 030308, remains a mystery.