Last December, a Florida resident won more than $32,000 with a winning Florida Lottery ticket. Well, sort of.
According to a press release from the department, a winning FANTASY 5 ticket from a Dec. 30 drawing remains unclaimed. The ticket is worth $32,686.71.
The player purchased the ticket at a RaceTrac in Lutz, a town located about 25 miles north of downtown Tampa. It will expire next week on Tuesday, June 28.
If nobody claims the ticket, the money will likely be added back to the prize pool. In response to the outstanding winnings, the Florida Lottery is encouraging players to check their old tickets.
Mystery player won the drawing’s top prize
The five-figure sum was the drawing’s max payout for that date. As a result, the player can only claim his or her winnings at a Florida Lottery Ticket Office. Players can find the nearest office by visiting the Florida Lottery’s website or by calling (850)-487-7787.
The rules of FANTASY 5 require players to choose five numbers. There will be a drawing later that day. If someone picks all five numbers correctly, regardless of order, they will take home the top prize.
If nobody picks all five correctly, the money is distributed among players who match three or four numbers correctly.
On Dec. 30, the winning numbers were 14-17-24-25-32. Players can also earn cash prizes or a free Quick Pick ticket by matching at least two of the numbers.
When the game was first available, players would pick numbers between 1-39. However, that dropped to 1-26 a few years later and then jumped to 1-36 in 2001.
FANTASY 5 is one of the most popular Florida Lottery games
The pari-mutuel game has been around for quite some time. It debuted in 1989 with drawings on Tuesday and Friday.
Just a year later, the department opted to add a third drawing on Monday in response to the game’s popularity. In 1994, they upped it to five nights a week, and then began nightly drawings in 1999.
Since the game’s inception, FANTASY 5 sent $3.6 billion to Florida’s educational system, made 16 millionaires and doled out $4.7 billion in total prizes.
As a whole, the Florida Lottery is responsible for contributing more than $41 billion to the Sunshine State’s education system. Additionally, it funds the Bright Futures Scholarship program, which has sent more than 917,000 students to college.