Includes video report
Updated Dec. 31, 2011, 8:04 am, to include press conference video
The winning ticket for a $16.5 million lottery jackpot was turned in Thursday less than two hours before it expired, the head of the Iowa Lottery said.
Lottery officials tried for months to urge the winner to come forward and claim the prize. Iowa Lottery Chief Executive Terry Rich said the reminders "worked as we had hoped, and brought in the winner just in time."
The identity of the Hot Lotto winner, and the story of why the winner waited so long to turn in the ticket, are still a mystery for now. Rich said the ticket was presented to the lottery Thursday by a representative of a Des Moines, Iowa, law firm on behalf of a trust.
"We look forward to learning the details we've all been wondering about these many months," Rich said. "Every winner's situation is different, and it's always fun to hear the story."
Until Thursday, all officials knew was that the $1 ticket was bought at a QuikTrip in Des Moines on Dec. 29, 2010. Odds of winning were 1 in 10.9 million, said Mary Neubauer, a spokeswoman for the state lottery.
The money will not be paid to the winner until the lottery can complete the standard security process for a jackpot win. Rich said additional security is now required because more than half the prize-claim period for the jackpot expired.
As the 4 p.m. Thursday deadline loomed, the Iowa Lottery received an increasing amount of calls, Neubauer said Wednesday night.
Some of the calls were from people who said they may have lost the ticket, or put it through a washing machine, she said. The callers are walked through a series of questions to determine whether they may indeed be the winner.
Other calls, she said, were from people who believe in the power of their own creativity. Once told they could not have been the winner, they would call back again and again, each time with a different story, she said.
The call from the law firm to claim the prize is not the first time a lawyer has come forward on behalf of a client about this jackpot, Rich said, but in none of the other cases did those involved have a winning ticket.
Another lottery winner wasn't so lucky earlier this week. Monday, a $77 million lottery ticket went unclaimed in Georgia.
If the Iowa prize had gone unclaimed, the money would have returned to the 15 lotteries that offer the game, in proportion to the percentage of sales that came from each state. Rich said Iowa would have gotten back about $1.3 million, which they would have put into the prize pools for future games.
The Iowa winner will pay 25% in federal taxes and 5% in state taxes, Neubauer said.
Gee why didn't they put it off for another 1 hour & 59 minutes????? Now that would have made for a real nail biter of a lottery story!
Well, that's a great New Year's present for somebody and glad the $$$ isn't going back to the state. Something tells me this story's gonna be a real whopper, though. I hope the ticket was actually found at the last minute and not just held onto and intentionally turned in with hours to spare. If that's the case, can't wait to hear the reasoning on that one...
Glad the winner/s came forward.................Congrats.............
i like to hear how this "person" ended up waiting to 2 hours left to claim, wtf was happening is anyone guest.
good for players none the less, we have real winner and not states winning their own jackpot prize......
It does not matter when the prize was claimed. It just matters that it was claimed.
Big bummer on that Georgia Lottery Powerball. What a waste of money. Lots of people out there (including me) with bills to pay.
Rumor has it that the winner is from New York state.
Congrats to the winners.
I now hate NY...they are owning the Mega Millions and Powerball jackpots this year. Hoping for some change in 2012...that winds of lady luck will blow on Illinois and that Illinois have multiple Mega Millions and Powerball jackpot winners!
I don't like this process that returns unclaimed jackpots to the states. It should be returned to the original jackpot it was taken from after the time period to claim it expires. Why do the states win it by default? They didn't buy all those tickets, the players did, and the money should remain in the jackpot so they still get an honest chance to win it. They put that money in there, not the states.
100%
"In other news....longhaul trucker Johnny Come-lately turns in 77 million dollar powerball ticket 1 week after the deadline expires!" When asked why he waited so long Johnny said "I thought the expiration was Dec 31, 2011!"
Yes, I also agree. The money should be returned to the players and not to the Lotto, I'm sure all the states are super happy for that extra income
Are you telling me this fellow will not get the winning after all
Better yet, just stop buying tickets until they get the point.
Congratulations to the winning ticket step forward.
Waiting until 2 hours to expiry of the ticket is not very smart. What if something happened on the way that delayed the arrival to the lottery place by 2 hours? cry me a river? Waiting 2 to 3 months is smart. Less publicity and action plan in place.
Waiting until the 11'th hour is crazy. This guy or group of people will get more publicity than they would have ever wanted.
Occupy Lotto HQ in New York
This guy or group of people will get more publicity than they would have ever wanted.
True but a bunch of liars and thieves were exposed when they made false claims because of them. Now the lottery know who they are and can quickly dismiss any claims they might make in the future.
True enough.
Maybe they have a story similar to the one in the Hallmark movie "Lucky Numbers". I'm sure that once the story got out that the ticket was about to expire there was a frantic search through old lottery tickets! "Better late than never! but never late is better! I'd rather find an old ticket and claim in the 11th hour than to never claim at all. At least the money won't go back to the state.
I'm glad that this jackpot, sole-winning, ticket got validated and will soon be after taxes paid off to the ticket claimant(s).
In the past, most states used unclaimed prizes for promotions and such. Many state legislatures have redirected those funds to the beneficiary proceeds fund.
The money will not be paid to the winner until the lottery can complete the standard security process for a jackpot win. Rich said additional security is now required because more than half the prize-claim period for the jackpot expired.
Not understanding the last sentence.
Why would additional security be needed because of the late claim period?
What questions will be asked that would not have been asked had this person decided to cash the ticket in earlier?
additional security is now required because more than half the prize-claim period for the jackpot expired.
yeah that doesn't make sense
maybe they don't want to pay
It is stupid to wait to claim. Money could have been invested!
I'm guessing that they were trying/hoping to remain anonymous and the lawyers spent the year trying to find a way for them to remain anonymous.They probably set up a trust in New York,with New York lawyers doing that work and the Iowa lawyers were sent to claim the jackpot.I can see lots of headaches taking place,what with all of the lawyers involved trying to find a way to keep the lid on the whole thing.They finally came down to the last hours and decided it was "now or never" and went ahead and claimed it.Now its wait and see if the lawyers knew what they were doing.I hope for the winners sake that the lawyers did!
Did anyone else also notice that because they waited so long the, annuity amount actually went down from 16 to 14 million. Who is their investment adviser? Madoff?
Also agree that any unclaimed prize money should be rolled into the current drawing amount. Why should the states get all that money?