Oregon Lottery: Record Oregon lottery jackpot still unclaimed
Oregon lottery players, check your pockets. All of `em.
Somewhere in those deep recesses, amid the lint and loose change, may dwell the biggest Megabucks payoff in the history of the drawing.
Nobody has claimed the $30 million prize.
It's been two weeks since the six winning numbers turned up on a ticket sold in Milwaukie.
Typically, big winners wait to come forward until they get their legal and financial houses in order, said lottery spokesman Chuck Baumann.
However, "it could be sitting on somebody's dashboard or dresser," Baumann said, "or, who knows, in a worst case it could be in a landfill."
The winning numbers for the Nov. 15 draw were 7, 16, 21, 22, 24, 43.
The winner has one year to claim the prize, either in 25 annual installments of $804,000 or in a lump sum of $10.05 million, both options after taxes.
In the 19-year history of Megabucks, two jackpots have gone unclaimed one for $1 million in 1997 and another for $1.4 million in 2002.
Before the Nov. 15 drawing, the record prize was for $23 million in 1991.
The Lottery won't say exactly where the ticket was sold. Baumann said that is to help ensure that whoever comes up with a winner has the genuine article.
If the winner isn't found, the state keeps the money.
Even though it didn't even buy a ticket.