Big Jackpot Winner Either Lying Low or Doesn’t Know

You would think a multimillion-dollar jackpot would be enough to draw somebody into a California Lottery office to make their claim, or that waiting one day even to verify the ticket would be enough to send a sane person to the nervous hospital.

But the fact remains that somewhere out there, a slip of paper--just a piece of paper that will realign a life forever--might be stuffed in a purse or the glove box of some old truck.

Friday passed. Nobody came forward. The winner may not even know he or she won anything at all. On Wednesday, the California SuperLotto jackpot went to one of 513 people who bought nearly 2,500 tickets at Kelly’s Mini Mart in Anaheim. Jennifer Lam, the owner of the shop, will get $435,000 just for having sold the ticket.

Lottery officials are not entirely surprised that the money lay unclaimed.

“Sometimes people just don’t check their tickets right away. Sometimes they want to come claim it with their family and that takes some time. Sometimes people just have to work,” said Cathy Doyle Johnston, a spokeswoman for the California Lottery.

“And, you know, it is very possible that somebody doesn’t know that they’ve even won. We had one woman once who didn’t claim her jackpot until she had six days before the deadline” to claim the ticket.

Her prize was about $4 million. She simply hadn’t checked.

About the latest winner, or winners, this much is clear: he or she opted for the lump-sum payment, rather than taking $87 million spread out over 26 years.

When the lottery pays winners over a few decades, it buys an annuity for much less than the amount of the jackpot. The annuity, which sits in money accounts and earns interest, pays out a set amount each year. A winner who opts for the lump has more control over the cash. In this case, the lump sum is $40.6 million. After taxes, the winner will get about $24.5 million. The ticket holder has 180 days to claim the prize.