Ten of the eleven million-dollar tickets from Louisiana’s rare April 29 Powerball drawing have already been cashed in, but the last $1 million prize is still sitting out there somewhere, tied to a Circle K on Jones Creek Road in Baton Rouge, with only weeks left on the clock
Someone walked into the Circle K at 5055 Jones Creek Road in Baton Rouge and bought a Powerball ticket for the April 29 drawing. They never came back to check it. If they had, they’d already be $1 million richer.
The numbers were 3, 19, 35, 51, 67, with a Powerball of 15 and a 2x Power Play. That’s according to Louisiana Lottery’s own prize records, and that single ticket matched them all.
A drawing that made Louisiana history
That April 29 draw wasn’t an ordinary Wednesday night. It handed out 11 separate million-dollar-plus prizes across the state in one drawing. Louisiana Lottery officials called it historic at the time.
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So the odds of one ticket going unclaimed for months might sound small. But it happened anyway. Now it’s the last piece of unfinished business from that whole rare night.
Ten winners already walked in and collected
Lottery President Rose Hudson thanked the winners who’ve already claimed their prizes from the April 29 drawing. Ten of the eleven winners have come forward, and she’s not exaggerating.
Names have surfaced from Marrero, Shreveport, Denham Springs and even Fresno, California. One ticket is left, tied to Baton Rouge, still sitting wherever the buyer put it back in April.
180 days, and then it’s gone
Louisiana runs its draw games on a strict clock. Draw-game prizes expire 180 days after the drawing, according to the Lottery’s own unclaimed-prize policy. Nothing on that page carves out an exception.
That’s not a grace period you can talk your way around. Once the window shuts, the Lottery closes the file for good. The ticket becomes worthless paper, whether it’s crumpled in a coat pocket or sitting in a drawer.
Doing the math on the actual deadline
Count 180 days forward from April 29 and you land on October 26. That’s the exact date the lottery has posted as the expiration. We ran that math ourselves against a calendar, and it checks out to the day.
So this isn’t a vague “later this year” warning. It’s a specific Monday. After it passes, the state stops caring who bought that ticket at the Jones Creek Road store.
Where the money goes if nobody shows up
If the deadline passes with no claim, the prize doesn’t just vanish into a state budget line. Instead, it moves into the Lottery’s unclaimed prize fund, and the fund sends that money back to players.
That fund pays for bigger scratch-off payouts, extra second-chance drawings and other promotions. So everyone else who plays in Louisiana would end up splitting this $1 million instead of one winner.
What the winner actually has to bring
This prize tops $510,000, and Louisiana treats that tier differently. The winner can’t mail in the ticket or drop it off at a local office. Only headquarters in Baton Rouge can process a prize this size.
The winner also has to sign the original ticket on the back and bring a valid photo ID and a completed claim form. No ID, no signed ticket, no payout. The rules leave no room for a workaround.
What $1 million actually becomes after taxes
Other winners from that same April 29 drawing found out their $1 million didn’t stay $1 million for long. Federal withholding takes 24%, and Louisiana takes another 3% before a dollar reaches anyone’s pocket.
That leaves roughly $730,000 in a winner’s hands, based on what other million-dollar winners from the same drawing actually received. Still life-changing money, just smaller than the number printed on the ticket.
The store that sold it doesn’t know either
Convenience stores never learn who’s holding a winning ticket sold at their counter. The clerks at that Circle K have no idea if the winner already spent the cash in their head, or just forgot about it.
Retailers earn their own bonus once someone claims the prize, so the store has a reason to hope the buyer turns up too. Until someone walks in with that ticket, though, even the store stays in the dark.
Why officials keep bringing this one up
Hudson’s public plea wasn’t random. Lottery offices routinely nudge unclaimed winners as a deadline nears. But a $1 million prize with a specific store and street address attached is rare enough to make news twice.
WBRZ first flagged the unclaimed ticket. Then local station KTBS picked up the story as the October date got closer. Both outlets named the same Jones Creek Road store.
The clock that doesn’t pause for anyone
This prize isn’t complicated. There’s a real ticket, a real store, and a real number of days written into Louisiana law. That clock counts down whether the winner is paying attention or not.
Somewhere in Baton Rouge, there’s a slip of paper worth $1 million. Maybe it’s in a car, a junk drawer or a coat from last spring. After October 26, it goes back to being exactly that: paper.
