Time is up for the holders of two unclaimed Lotto tickets, including one for $500,000 sold in Port Chalmers.
The Dunedin triple dip ticket was purchased at Port Chalmers Hammer Hardware before the Saturday, December 29, draw last year. It included a voucher number 197694 which earned the holder the right to claim the $500,000 prize.
First prize in the promotion, a $1 million voucher issued at Tairua Stationers, in the Coromandel, also remained unclaimed.
The holders had until Monday - 12 months after the draw - to claim their prizes.
Lotto spokeswoman Karen Jones confirmed yesterday neither voucher had been handed in and both had now expired.
The $1.5 million would now be returned to the prize pool and used for future promotions, she said.
The Coromandel voucher is the largest unclaimed Lotto prize since a $3 million ticket sold in Masterton in early 2003 was not claimed.
About 3% of NZ Lotteries prizes are unclaimed each year.
"It's pretty unusual for wins of that size not to be claimed," Ms Jones said.
However, she said special promotional vouchers were sometimes not treated as carefully as tickets and tended to be discarded more readily.
