On May 25th, an unknown person or persons bought a Powerball ticket in Tampa Bay, Florida at Carollwood Market. The numbers of the ticket were: 2, 6, 19, 21, 27, Powerball number 25. That ticket wound up being a $16 million winner but the prize has gone unclaimed. The 180-day deadline to cash in is fast approaching, and at 11:59 pm tonight, the ticket will be worth nothing.

David Bishop, a spokesman for the Florida Lottery, stated, “It’s here, we’re ready to give it to the rightful owner. We want to give the money away.”

So what happened to the winner? We can only speculate at this point. No one knows for sure. There was another large unclaimed lottery jackpot in Florida in 2003. A whopping $53.7 million went unclaimed. No one found out what happened to that winner either.

And where does the unclaimed cash go? The Florida Lottery website says that 80% of the money goes to education. In fact, the Florida Lottery has given $25 billion dollars to the state for public education over the past 25 years. The other 20% is put back into the Florida Lottery prize pool.

Powerball runs every Wednesday and Saturday nights at 10:59 pm Eastern. In order to hit the jackpot, you must match all five white balls and one red ball, which is the Powerball. Each ticket costs $2. There are several different cash prize payouts a player can win without hitting the jackpot. Last night’s numbers were: 4, 18, 23, 32, 45, Powerball 7. However, no one hit the big jackpot, which will rollover to Saturday night. The estimated jackpot for Saturday’s drawing is $50 million.

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