(Radio Iowa) – A Powerball ticket worth half a million dollars will expire Thursday. Lottery spokesperson Mary Neubauer says the ticket was purchased at a Kwik Star in Mason City in March.”We’re down to the wire on this one, and certainly we’ve been giving reminders through the six-month period, or the 180-day period, that people have to claim this prize, but so far, we just haven’t heard anything,” Neubauer says. The ticket will be worth nothing once the Lottery shuts down Thursday. “The precise expiration time period for it is 4 p-m on Thursday some September 12th. This prize has to be claimed at lottery headquarters in Clive,” Neubauer says.

Neubauer says they have tried to do everything they can to make people aware of the prize. “You know, we did do an event up at the store to call attention to it. Certainly, we’ve put out reminders through the months,” She says.” When we were at the store, it seemed like folks who came up knew about the prize and had heard about it, and we’re talking about it themselves. So I think people’s guess would be as good as mine as to what happened with the ticket, did somebody just never check it and they threw it away?” This jackpot is a little unusual as it is from what’s called the “Double Play” option of Powerball.

(Iowa Lottery photo)

“That option was just added to the Powerball game here in Iowa back in November. And double play means that the numbers on your ticket are eligible for two drawings the night of the night that your ticket is good for,” Neubauer says. “So certainly it’s eligible for the Powerball drawing, but then the Powerball double play drawing occurs about 20 minutes after the regular drawing.” Neubauer says someone may’ve forgotten about the second drawing. “If you’re somebody who thinks maybe you had the ticket and you threw it away or you lost it, certainly call us at the lottery before that prize claim deadline, because we can put you in contact with our Lottery security folks,” she says.

500-thousand dollar prize will go back into the Iowa Lottery prize pool if it is not claimed by the deadline Thursday.