A £3m prize has gone unclaimed after the lottery winner, who bought their ticket in Stirling, failed to come forward in time.
The unknown lottery winner, who would have shared in a quadruple-rollover prize pot from the 17 December draw, had 180 days to claim the money, but did not.
The £3,062,272 prize, which has also accumulated interest in the 180 days it was waiting to be claimed, will now go towards National Lottery funded projects around the country.
A spokesman for the National Lottery said; “it was a real shame” that someone had missed out.”
He said: “Unfortunately, I can confirm that the ticket-holder did not come forward within the deadline to claim their prize and has now sadly missed out on this substantial amount of money.”
“We tried very hard to find the ticket-holder and it’s a real shame that they have missed out, but there is still one winner – the nation.
“This money, and all the interest earned over the 180 days, will now go to benefit projects all over the UK funded by the National Lottery.”
I guess we can celebrate in the good that this unclaimed prize will now go towards. Hopefully the unknown lottery winner will never discover that they could have been £3m as that would be too much for anyone to bear.
The best way to avoid having this happen to you is to always play the lottery online. This would make it infinitely easier for any prize body to find you to let you know you’re a lottery winner.