SACRAMENTO, January 13, 2005 – It's an $81 million dollar mystery: The identity of some lucky SuperLOTTO Plus ticket holder who matched all six of the lucky numbers and hasn't yet called the California State Lottery office to claim the big cash prize.
"We're ready and waiting to process the ticket," said Lottery Director Chon Gutierrez. "We hope the person is just waiting for the shock of winning to sink in a bit and will call us soon. But there's the real possibility that he or she hasn't checked their ticket yet and doesn't know they're now one of the richest people in California," he said.
"All that person has to do is call us or take the ticket into a California Lottery District Office for verification and we'll take care of the rest. It's a job we absolutely love to do," he said.
The ticket was sold at the 7-Eleven located at 4427 East Chapman Avenue in the City of Orange. The retailers are winners too and will receive $405,000 or 1/2 of 1% of the winning ticket. This is the third time a winning jackpot ticket has been purchased at a 7-Eleven in the City of Orange.
The winner will have 180 days to claim the jackpot. The winner chose annual payments with the first payment being more than $2 million and the 26th payment being more than $4.1 million before federal withholding.
If the prize is unclaimed after 180 days, the money will go to California's schools. As it is, the California public education system stands to collect some $51 million as a result of yesterday's drawing. In all, there were 1.1 million additional tickets sold that won smaller cash prizes.
"We hope the winner contacts us as soon as possible," said Gutierrez. "What a great way to start the New Year!"
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