Mystery £1M Lotto Winner Has Just ONE Day Left to Come Forward as National Lottery Hunt for Millionaire

A £1 million National Lottery prize is sitting unclaimed in the London Borough of Richmond, and the winner has yet to come forward.

The main deadline is not as close as it first appears. The winner has until 15 February 2027 to claim the prize, but anyone who no longer has the physical ticket and believes they have a genuine claim faces a much shorter window, with a written claim needing to be submitted by Friday 18 September.

Richmond Lotto Winner Hasn't Claimed Their Prize

The winning ticket was bought in Richmond upon Thames for the Lotto draw held on Wednesday 19 August. The player matched five of the six main numbers and the Bonus Ball to secure the £1 million prize.

The winning numbers were 4, 8, 10, 17, 23 and 28, while the Bonus Ball was 16. The National Lottery has not publicly identified the retailer that sold the ticket, meaning the search covers anyone who bought a ticket in the borough for that draw.

Under National Lottery rules, a winning ticket can normally be claimed within 180 days of the draw. That gives the mystery millionaire until 15 February 2027 to claim the prize with the winning ticket.

There is, however, a separate deadline for players who believe they won but no longer have the physical ticket. A written claim must be made to Allwyn within 30 days of the draw, making Friday 18 September the final day for the Richmond winner to report a lost ticket.

National Lottery Urges Richmond Ticket-Holders To Check Their Numbers

Allwyn, operator of The National Lottery, is now asking people across Richmond to revisit tickets they may have bought on or around 19 August. People are also being encouraged to ask friends, relatives, colleagues and neighbours whether they could be holding the missing seven-figure ticket.

'Speak to your friends, family, colleagues and neighbours – we believe we can find our missing winner, but we need the public to help us,' said Toby Moxham, head of winners' services at Allwyn.

The operator has stressed that the £1 million prize must be claimed within the 180-day period. If the winner does not make a valid claim within that period, the prize money and interest generated from it will be distributed to National Lottery-funded community and charitable projects across the UK.

The focus now is on finding the ticket-holder before the lost-ticket deadline expires.

£5 Million Birmingham Lotto Prize Was Also Left Unclaimed

The Richmond search is not the first time a major National Lottery prize has gone unclaimed for weeks. In September 2022, a Lotto ticket bought in Birmingham won £5,070,357, but the holder had not come forward to claim the prize nearly two weeks after the draw.

The winning Birmingham numbers were 3, 15, 20, 48, 57 and 58, with 9 as the Bonus Ball. The prize was eventually claimed, with Camelot, then the operator of The National Lottery, confirming on 24 October that it had received a claim for the £5 million prize.

The claim still had to go through the lottery's validation process before the money could be paid. The winner's identity was not automatically disclosed, with the ticket-holder able to decide whether to make their win public.

The Richmond winner has until 15 February 2027 to claim the prize if they still have the ticket. For anyone who has misplaced it, however, Friday's deadline is the immediate concern.