Check Your Old Tickets: NJ Lottery Warns of Expiring $50K Powerball Prizes

Two Powerball tickets worth $50,000 each were sold in New Jersey. They'll expire in January and February if winners don't step up. The New Jersey State Lottery announced Monday that both prizes sit unclaimed as deadlines loom closer.

One prize vanishes Jan. 13, 2026. Someone bought the winning ticket at 7-Eleven on Lafayette Road in Edison, located in Middlesex County. The second prize disappears Feb. 1, 2026 — that winner grabbed their ticket at Wine Outlet on Arnold Avenue in Point Pleasant Beach, over in Ocean County.

State rules give players one year from the draw date to claim what they won. Miss that window? It's gone. Both winners matched four numbers plus the Powerball, earning them the third-prize payout.

The winning numbers for the Jan. 13, 2025, drawing were 4, 6, 16, 39, and 66. The Powerball drawn was 9 with a Power Play of 2x. The winning numbers for the Feb. 1, 2025, drawing were 23, 29, 32, 49, and 61. The Powerball drawn was 8, with a Power Play of 2X.

Two other $50,000 tickets sold for the Feb. 1 drawing have been claimed. Someone bought one at 7-Eleven on Madison Avenue in Cresskill, up in Bergen County. Another person bought theirs at Wawa on Route 45 in Pilesgrove, down in Salem County.

Officials push players to check old tickets. Look in junk drawers. Check jacket pockets. In May, a Mercer County resident cleaned out a junk drawer at home and discovered a Mega Millions ticket worth $1 million just sitting there.

"I was in the house and I just opened the drawer and I saw the tickets. I decided to get them checked," the winner told the New Jersey Lottery, according to North Jersey.com.

Thousands of dollars in winnings go unclaimed across the state each year. Once a prize expires, nobody can claim it. The unclaimed money returns to the state for designated public uses.

Since 1970, the state program has brought in nearly $34.7 billion — that's a staggering amount accumulated over decades. A portion supports the public employee pension system under an agreement signed into law in 2017.

Players can visit the official website or use the app to scan and check old tickets. Instructions for checking and claiming prizes are available through both platforms.