$1.34 Billion Dollar Illinois Lottery Winner Hasn’t Claimed Prize

The biggest lottery winner in Illinois state history still has not come forward to claim their prize. As of today, the person with the winning ticket for the $1.34 billion dollar lottery remains unknown and the clock is ticking.

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UPDATE: KCCI in Des Moines now reporting that 2 people have finally come forward to claim the Mega Millions prize.

ORIGINAL STORY: I saw NBC Chicago report that the winner of the Mega Millions lottery on July 29 has yet to contact lottery officials to claim the prize. They report that while this is not really that unusual for a monster prize like this to remain unclaimed, there is a deadline approaching that's less than a week away now. They have to let lottery officials know whether they want a lump sum (yes, please) or annual payments.

The Mega Millions lottery rules say that a winner has 12 months to claim the prize and prove they have the winning ticket. But, there's a 60 day limit on determining how they want the money delivered.

How much money will the winner really end up with?

The NBC Chicago report says that if the winner chooses the annual payment, it would be paid out over a 29 year period. If they choose all-at-once, that would result in a lump sum of $780.5 million.

Oh, by the way, the Speedway store where the winning ticket was sold gets $500,000 as a bonus for being "the place" where the lottery magic happened. That would buy a lot of convenience store pizza.

As of now, the clock continues to tick as the mystery lottery winner remains anonymous. It's possible the person doesn't know they have the winning ticket yet. Or, it could be they know the world would be knocking on their door if their name were announced. Nice problem to have.