No one claimed a $1M Powerball win in Kentucky. What the lottery did with the money
A $1 million unclaimed Powerball prize from a ticket sold in Kentucky last year will go to a state education fund after its owner failed to claim it.
According to Kentucky Lottery spokesperson Terry Sebastian, it’s a rare event that hasn’t occurred at least since mid-2018.
“We could not find an unclaimed win of this magnitude ($1 million) and went back through our records, starting in July 2018. So this is rare,” Sebastian told the Herald-Leader in an email Wednesday.
Earlier this month, the Kentucky Lottery revealed the winning ticket, sold in Henry County, had remained unclaimed since its drawing July 19, 2023. At that time, the game’s jackpot soared to $1 billion. The jackpot ultimately went to a player in Los Angeles.
“It’s rare that someone holding a $1 million Powerball ticket fails to cash it in,” Kentucky Lottery President Mary Harville said in a news release earlier this month announcing the expiration of the ticket.
What happens to unclaimed lottery money in Kentucky?
The unclaimed ticket officially expired Jan. 15, but due to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, the holder had until 5 p.m. Jan. 12 to claim their prize at Kentucky Lottery headquarters in Louisville.
Since the prize has remained unclaimed, the money goes to Kentucky’s Unclaimed Prize Fund. That fund supports scholarships awarded through the Kentucky Educational Excellence Scholarship (KEES) program, which rewards students with money for college if they get good grades in high school.
“For more than six months, the Kentucky Lottery has waited for the owner of this $1 million Powerball ticket to come forward,” Harville said in a news release Monday. “Unfortunately, the ticket was never claimed, but there is a silver lining at the end of the day — we will be returning $1 million to education to further our mission to fund college scholarships and grants for Kentucky students and their families.”
Since its inception in 1989, the Kentucky Lottery reports it has put billions of dollars to state projects, with the bulk going to scholarship programs such as KEES.
“I tell our staff what you do every day is to send Kentucky college students to school,” Harville previously told the Herald-Leader.
If you or someone you know has a problem gambling, help is available at 1-800-522-4700.
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