Are you the owner of the unclaimed $500,000 lottery ticket?
Someone who bought the Powerball ticket on Aug. 13 at the Broadway Mart on South Broadway in McComb has until Thursday to claim their prize — or lose it all forever, lottery officials said.
The player selected their own numbers and matched four out of five white balls, plus the Powerball.
The winning numbers from the drawing were 19, 24, 35, 43 and 62, along with a Powerball of 2.
For an additional dollar, the player purchased the Power Play feature, which multiplies winnings by 2, 3, 4, 5 or 10 times, depending on the number drawn.
In this drawing, the Power Play was 10 — the highest available — which makes the ticket’s winning odds even more remarkable.
Winners have 180 days from the date of the drawing to claim their prize, according to the Mississippi Lottery Corp.
Broadway Mart’s owner, Maninder Balsingh, said he has been telling everyone about the winning ticket and its looming expiration date, but still has no idea who purchased it.
Balsingh said he plans to put up a sign to let customers know that one of them may be walking around with a half million and not even realize it.
“Everyone knows,” he said. “I’m not sure what else to do.”
Lottery Corp. communications director Meg Annison said unclaimed lottery winnings go into an account the lottery corporation uses for promotional purposes.
Broadway Mart won’t get a share of the prize money for selling the ticket, claimed or not, Annison said, noting that retailers only receive incentive checks for prizes of at least $1 million.
Meanwhile, tonight’s Powerball drawing rolls back to the minimum $20 million after a single ticket in suburban Seattle hit the $754.6 million prize on Monday night.
