Unclaimed $1M lottery ticket set to expire

Atlantic Lottery officials are reminding people to check their lottery tickets because there's at least one person who's sitting on a winning ticket worth $1 million.

Sarah McBeath, a spokeswoman for Atlantic Lottery, said a winning Lotto Max ticket worth $1 million was sold somewhere in Dartmouth in August. The prize has never been claimed.

"The Lotto Max jackpot was $50 million and there was an additional 32 $1-million prizes that were drawn," said McBeath.

"These prizes are called Maxmillions and so these Maxmillions prizes are individually drawn. That means there were 32 draws for $1 million each."

The winner of the $1-million prize has until the one-year anniversary — Aug. 6, 2011 — to claim the prize.

Christina Murphy, who works at Mackay's Pharmasave in Dartmouth, said she has been telling her customers for a while about the unclaimed prize.

"I said, 'You know what? Go home, check your tickets, all of your old tickets. Bring them in, validate them, you could have a winning $1-million ticket,'" she said.

Murphy isn't convinced her store was the one that sold the winning ticket, but she said that didn't stop her from crossing her fingers and hoping she was the winner.

"I've checked everything, everywhere. In my house, tore it apart, upside down, just in case," Murphy said, laughing.

"No luck. No luck at all."

The winning numbers are: 6, 23, 26, 30, 34, 36 and 41.

Atlantic Lottery officials said there is a second unclaimed $1-million prize in the form of a Mega Millions scratch ticket drawn on Nov. 22, 2010. That will also expire on the one-year anniversary.