Hunt for $349,000,000 Mega Millions winner with prize unclaimed as deadline to collect looms

A Mega Millions lottery winner scored a $349million jackpot but has not come forward to claim the prize with a deadline to collect coming fast.

The jackpot, which has been updated from the initial estimate of $344million, was won by the mystery player who matched six numbers on March 25, according to Mega Millions.

Matching the white balls 1, 5, 17, 39 and 62, and the gold Mega Ball 8, the ticket was purchased at Casey’s General Store in Cortland, Illinois.

State lottery laws dictate that a winner has one year from the drawing date to come forward and take home the money.

Under the law in Illinois, a winner will have until May 24 to contact Mega Millions officials in order to choose between annuity payments for the full amount or a lump sum of $161.4million.

After that 60-day period, the winner will have the option to receive annuity payments. If a year passes and no one steps forward, the prize could go to education.

State law allows lottery winners to request to remain anonymous.

The jackpot had been building since January 17 with a win in Arizona.

A winning ticket was recorded only two weeks before Mega Millions switches to a new version that ‘will feature bigger prizes at every non-jackpot prize tier, better odds to win the jackpot, better odds overall, larger starting jackpots, and faster-growing jackpots’, according to the game. The first drawing under the new format will be on April 8.

Illinois, which was one of the Mega Millions founding members back in 2022, has seen 16 jackpot wins including the very first two. The last time a jackpot winner came out of the Prairie State was in June 4 of last year.

The latest Mega Millions winner is not the only player who has not claimed a jackpot right away.

A year ago, a Mega Millions winner in New Jersey who won $1.13billion, which was the fifth largest jackpot in the game’s history, had lottery officials stating: ‘We wait for the winner to come forward to file their claim.’

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