Powerball Jackpot of $1.817 Remains Unclaimed as the Ticket Owner Hasn’t Contacted Lottery

Did they lose it? It certainly sounds plausible. Millions of dollars are lost to automatically forfeited jackpots because their winners are none the wiser about the fact.

Yet, in the case of the $1.817 billion jackpot won in Arkansas, having the winner fail to materialize would serve as a costly warning to all lottery players who buy tickets but do not properly care for them. 

Powerball Winner Still Hasn’t Stepped Forward 

The most recent nearly $2 billion jackpot was won on December 24, with the ticket sold at the Murphy USA gas station in Cabot. The clock is now on for the person to claim their ticket in 180 days, before it is automatically forfeited, which means they have until the end of June to do so.

As to tracking down the actual winner, it would not be really possible, because the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery only allows in-person purchases, and does not have an online register where players may digitally log their tickets lest they misplace the physical copies. 

Of course, coming into so much money quickly would hardly mean that you rush headlong to claim it, especially during the Christmas holiday, when the professionals you may need for advice may be off work. 

In other words, whoever scooped up the big win on Christmas Eve could simply be biding their time and contacting legal and financial advisors to ensure that you manage the money well enough. 

Winner May Simply Be Biding Their Time

Giving in to profligacy could quickly reduce the money a person has won through the lottery, whereas strategic investment, paired with a shift in lifestyle, could see the winner enjoy the windfall throughout life and have more left for the next generations.

While an unclaimed jackpot of such an amount would be a precedent, multi-million jackpots have been forfeited in the past, albeit rarely, due to winners failing to step forward and claim them in the first place.

In 2002, a $68-million jackpot was never claimed from the Mega Millions lottery. A $77.1-million Powerball jackpot was also forfeited back in 2011 when no winner presented a ticket.