Concord NH – NH Lottery officials are urging players to look through their old tickets, as a pair of $10,000 winners remains unclaimed and is about to expire.  The winning Powerball tickets, purchased a week apart one year ago in Hooksett and in Salem, need to be claimed or the prize money will expire and be returned to the lottery’s net profit which is earmarked for education.

 “According to lottery rules, any unclaimed winning Powerball tickets expire a year after the draw date,” said lottery spokesperson Maura McCann. “We’re hoping that whoever bought the tickets for those drawings last March still have them. We’d really like to give them that prize money.”

The first winning ticket was purchased at the Hannaford grocery store, Northside Plaza, on the Manchester/Hooksett line.  It was originally purchased March 21, 2009.  The player matched four of the five winning numbers (23-27-49-52) and the Powerball number of 21.

The Salem ticket was bought at a store that was at the time called “M & N Border Store,” but is now known as “First in NH.”  The winning ticket, purchased on March 28, 2009, matched four of the five numbers (2-3-41-48) and matched the Powerball number of 19.   This is the second time in three months that a $10,000 Powerball winner from this store has gone unclaimed.

Any player unsure if their ticket is a winner can bring it to any of the 1,200 NH Lottery retailers, where it can be checked electronically by the retailer’s online terminal.  However, as the value of this particular ticket exceeds $599, the winner must claim their prize at Lottery Headquarters in Concord before 4:00 pm on the day of expiration.

Since 1964, the New Hampshire Lottery has had a significant financial impact on the state.  For the past 45 years, the New Hampshire Lottery has recorded $4.1 billion in lottery sales and other earnings, with $2.7 billion being paid in prizes and other cost of sales. Net proceeds to education to date total more than $1.3 billion. 
 
The New Hampshire Lottery Commission, located at 14 Integra Drive in Concord, currently manages all lottery operations in the state, including Instant games, New Hampshire POWERBALL®, Tri-State Megabucks Plus®, Tri-State Weekly Grand®, Hot Lotto Sizzler®, and Tri-State Pick3/Pick4 Daily Numbers® games.  Starting January 31st, the New Hampshire Lottery will also offer Mega Millions® with Megaplier®.

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