Iowa’s $16.5m Hot Lotto jackpot remains unclaimed after three months

DES MOINES, IA – Terry Rich, chief executive officer of the Iowa Lottery said Tuesday that a $16.5 million Hot Lotto jackpot remains unclaimed three months after a winning ticket was purchased at a Des Moines convenience store, prompting him to remind players to double-check their tickets.

“Today marks three months from the date of the drawing where the Hot Lotto jackpot was won,” Rich said in a statement. “Whoever won this prize has now waited longer to claim the prize than any lottery jackpot winner in Iowa in at least the past decade. And, we know that the $16.5 million-winning ticket has never been checked at one of our terminals, so it’s possible the big winner still doesn’t know the good news.”

The unclaimed prize is the third largest jackpot ever offered in the Hot Lotto game, and is the seventh biggest lotto prize ever won in Iowa.

Rich noted that the jackpot-winning Hot Lotto ticket was purchased over the holidays, so he said it was possible that the lottery player who bought the winning ticket may have set it aside somewhere and has gone unnoticed.

Thankfully for the ticket holder they still have plenty of time to claim the prize. Hot Lotto tickets in Iowa expire a year from the date of the drawing in which a prize is won.

The winning numbers from the night of the draw were: 3-12-16-26-33 and Hot Ball 11.

source: WCF Courier