Lottery tile

One Chattanooga resident may be $1 million richer - all he or she has to do is claim the prize.

A $1 million winning Powerball ticket was sold in Chattanooga, according to the Tennessee Lottery Corp. on Thursday. So far, no one has stepped forward to claim the prize, said Kym Gerlock with the lottery.

The ticket matched five of the five white balls in a drawing Wednesday night to win the second-place $1 million prize, and is the 92nd ticket to win $1 million or more since the lottery began in 2004, Gerlock said.

Tennessee Lottery officials have not released where the ticket was purchased, but the retailer will receive $5,000 for selling the winning ticket.

Gerlock said this is the second million-dollar ticket in the Chattanooga area this year. Another $1 million ticket was sold in East Ridge in April.

The winner has 180 days after the end of the drawing to claim the prize, though most people tend to claim within two weeks after winning, Gerlock said.

"There's no formula - we've had people claim prizes the day after, or we've had people wait until almost the last day," she said. "I would say, a majority of the time, the larger winners tend to claim their prizes sooner."

If the prize is left unclaimed, it will be given to afterschool programs, she said. The Tennessee Lottery donated more than $13 million in unclaimed prizes to such programs at the end of the 2012 fiscal year, according to Gerlock.

Because the prize is more than $200,000, it must be claimed at the Tennessee Lottery Headquarters at Plaza Tower Metro Center, 200 Athens Way, in Nashville.