Illinois Lottery: $2.5 million Illinois lottery ticket expiresSomebody out there just lost $2.5 million.
That's how much an Illinois Lotto ticket sold in a Calumet City liquor store on May 3, 2003, was worth -- until 5 p.m. Monday. Now it's worth nothing because the one-year time limit to cash the ticket has passed.
The ticket, with the numbers 03-23-28-29-38-42, was sold at Torrence Liquors, 616 Torrence Ave. in the south suburb.
If you find it in your wallet or drawer, maybe the liquor store will buy you a drink. Lottery agents collect their 1 percent fee (in this case, $25,000) whether or not the ticket is cashed.
More than $20 million a year in lottery winnings goes unclaimed. "I encourage everyone who has a lottery ticket to check it," said lottery spokeswoman Anne Plohr Rayhill. "Just because you didn't match all of the numbers doesn't mean you didn't win anything."
Most of the unclaimed money goes to school funding, but some goes into a Second Chance drawing.
