Lottery Drawing Leaves 538 Million Prize Unclaimed in US

A multi-state lottery drawing left an estimated 538 million dollar top prize unclaimed after no ticket matched all required numbers in the Saturday drawing, while a ticket sold in Lakeside, California, won more than 2.2 million dollars, according to Forbes and NBC San Diego.

For the next drawing, officials said a winning ticket holder could choose between a 538 million dollar annuity paid over 30 years or a 220.6 million dollar cash option, according to Forbes. The previous drawing numbers were 1, 4, 19, 33, 51 and the additional number 15.

Forbes reported that matching all six numbers has odds of about 1 in 292.2 million. The California ticket sold at Americo Gas in Lakeside matched five numbers but missed the additional number, according to NBC San Diego.

The California winner's prize was 2,259,918 dollars because California uses a pari-mutuel system for major lottery payouts, according to NBC San Diego. The winner has six months to claim the prize, with the amount expected to be about 1.1 million dollars after taxes, according to Yahoo.

Americo Gas owner Fares Zora described his reaction after a customer won the large prize at his store.

"I am super, super happy to see one of my customers getting this amount of money. It was big, 2.25 million dollars. That's big money. I'm happy to see someone get something this big," said Fares Zora, owner of Americo Gas.

Zora said the Lakeside store had previously sold other winning tickets, including prizes of about 150,000 dollars. He also said the latest prize was the largest won at the location.

"Maybe it's like .005 percent. So I'll get like 10,000 dollars, but I'm just happy for the person who won at my store," said Fares Zora, owner of Americo Gas.

The store owner said he hoped the winner would return after collecting the prize. He said he wanted to congratulate the winner and discuss financial planning.

"I wish he would come by one day and say thank you, so we could talk about winning that amount of money, and I hope he can invest that money so he can make more money," said Fares Zora, owner of Americo Gas.

Separately, the California Lottery reported results for Oct. 12, 2026, with the numbers 22, 28, 38, 51 and 69, plus the additional number 9 and a multiplier of 3 for its listed drawing result.