Winning lottery ticket worth nearly $200,000 sold in Southwest Michigan expires

An unclaimed lottery ticket worth over $197,000 that was sold in Covert Township last September has expired, the Michigan Lottery said Friday. 

The Fantasy 5 ticket was purchased at Max William LLC on the 31000 block of Michigan Highway 140 and expired at 4:45 p.m. Friday, according to lottery officials. The $197,766 prize went to the Michigan School Aid Fund, which state law says is used to help school districts, higher education and school employees' retirement systems.

Lottery officials say Fantasy 5 tickets are valid for one year from the drawing date. According to the Michigan Lottery website, the odds of winning the game's jackpot, which starts at $100,000, are 1 in 575,757. Any unclaimed prizes are added to the fund.

The record for an unclaimed lottery prize in Michigan was set in 1998, when a ticket worth $34 million went unclaimed, according to lottery officials. The ticket was sold at a Meijer in East Lansing. 

Covert Township is around 10 miles south of South Haven, Michigan.