Clock Runs Out on Unclaimed $44M Florida Lottery Ticket

Somebody bought a winning lottery ticket in Florida on June 14, but it's now too late to claim the $44 million prize, officials say. The Florida Lottery Commission said that the 180 days the winner had to claim the jackpot expired at midnight Monday and that most of the money will now to the state's public education system, NBC News reports. Under state law, 80% of unclaimed winnings go to the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund and the rest goes back into the prize pool.

The winning ticket was bought at a Sunoco gas station in Kissimmee in Osceola County, around 20 miles away from attractions including Disney World, Florida Today reports. The gas station will still get a commission for selling the winning ticket. WFTV reports that the biggest unclaimed prize in Florida lottery history is a ticket in 1999 worth $66 million at the time, which works out to more than $120 million in today's dollars. (In August, a $52 million lottery jackpot in Canada was declared unclaimed, though almost 2,700 people claimed to have lost the winning ticket.)