$4-Million Lottery Prize Is Going . . . Going . . .

Except for possibly a small loophole, time has run out for the mystery winner of the California Lottery, officials declared Friday.

Although lottery officials would not exclude the possibility that the winning ticket might reach them through the mail, the official 180-day claim period for the $3.98-million prize in the Lotto jackpot of Jan. 20 expired at midnight Thursday without anyone claiming the money. Lottery officials had previously declared the deadline to be midnight Friday, but said that had been a miscalculation.

A Lotto ticket bought here last Jan. 17 at New Wah Lun Co., a grocery store in Chinatown, turned out to be one of four winners in a $15.9-million jackpot the next Saturday. But no claims--not even illegitimate ones--were made, said Bob Taylor, a lottery spokesman.

If unclaimed, the prize money will revert to the state education fund, the main public beneficiary of the lottery. The $3.98 million will be by far the largest unclaimed prize in the lottery’s 21-month history, Taylor said.

Since the winning ticket may have been bought by a tourist from as far away as Hong Kong, lottery officials are still allowing time for the unlikely event that the winning ticket will arrive through the mail, Taylor said.

“We want to allow every opportunity for the person to turn it in,” he said. “As long as it’s postmarked before deadline (midnight Thursday), it will be accepted.”