No Claim Filed for $1.53M Powerball Ticket in California

A $1,532,761 Powerball prize tied to the Feb. 21, 2026 drawing and sold at Varso Gas in Escondido reached its 180-day claim deadline on Aug. 20 with no claimant reported.

The ticket matched five white balls — 27, 28, 36, 48 and 49 — and missed the Powerball number 21, a 5-of-6 result that is eligible for a large non-jackpot payout.

California limits claims for that prize category to 180 days. State law requires unclaimed lottery prizes to be transferred to public education funds, and the $1.53 million would be added to more than $1.1 billion in unclaimed prizes the state has sent to schools since 1985.

Major non-jackpot Powerball payouts in California are calculated on a pari-mutuel basis, so final amounts change with ticket sales and the number of winning tickets. That method accounts for why the five-number match paid $1,532,761 in this instance, higher than the roughly $1 million sometimes seen in other states.

A California Lottery spokesperson, Daniel Kelly, said the retailer that sold the ticket receives 0.5% of the prize for selling a winning ticket above $1 million, which amounts to about $7,500 whether the prize is claimed or not.

Varso Gas manager Michael Metti described heavy foot traffic at the store ahead of the deadline and recounted customers buying tickets: “Everyone’s coming in to get tickets; hopefully someone wins again. It’s been very busy; I think I’ve done a couple hundred transactions today.”

A lottery spokesperson added that unclaimed prizes have averaged roughly $40 million to $50 million a year in recent years, a steady source of funding routed to public schools.

With the claim window closed and no public claimant reported, the ticket will follow state procedures for handling unclaimed prizes.