UTMB Could Get Lottery Jackpot

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UTMB could get funds from unclaimed jackpot

Staff and wire report

The Daily News

Published December 22, 2001

A $13 million Texas Lottery jackpot went unclaimed Friday when no

one came forward to personally pick up the winnings before a six-month deadline

passed.

The winning ticket still could be claimed if it arrives at the Texas

Lottery Commission headquarters by mail with a postmark date of Dec. 20. If it

doesn’t arrive, the jackpot will go to the lottery’s unclaimed prize fund and an

account for health care to benefit the poor.

The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston is one of the

hospitals in the state that receives money from that fund.

Lottery officials said Friday that the ticket was likely purchased

by someone who lost track of it.

“I would think that’s what has happened,” lottery spokeswoman

a Tirloni said. “Someone lost or misplaced it or forgot they were in the

Humble area then.”

The Quick Pick ticket — containing winning numbers of

10-12-16-25-29-41 for the June 23 jackpot — was purchased at a liquor store in

Humble. The buyer chose the cash value option, making the ticket worth $7.3

million before taxes.

Winning tickets are valid for 180 days after a drawing. The deadline

for the June winner was midnight Thursday.

The only other time a Lotto Texas jackpot went unclaimed was in

1995. A ticket worth $12.4 million, purchased for the drawing held Oct. 26,

1994, in Flower Mound, was never turned over to lottery officials.

The latest a winner came forward was in 1996 when Wantland

Family Investments, Ltd. waited 147 days to claim an $8 million jackpot, lottery

officials said.

Lottery Commission executive director Cloud said that winner

found the ticket while cleaning out a desk at work before changing jobs.

The retailer that sold the June 23 ticket, Copperfield Liquor No. 6

off Farm-to-Market Road 1960 northeast of Houston, received the 1-percent

retailer bonus of $130,000 for the sale.

If no claim by mail is received for the ticket, the winnings will be

transferred to the state-administered Multicategorical Teaching Hospital

Account. It funds indigent health care at the UTMB and other facilities

throughout the state.

Larry Revill, chief financial officer at UTMB, said that under a law

approved by the Legislature in 1997, the university can siphon up to $20 million

from the account each year. Revill said that the university has received the

maximum amount each year.

“That $20 million is absolutely invaluable to UTMB,” he said.

The money is used to pay for the rising number of indigent patients

who come to the hospital each year.

According to hospital records, UTMB admitted 6,309 patients without

insurance in 2001. It also treated 150,439 outpatients and 14,473 emergency room

patients who didn’t have insurance.

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