TWO lottery tickets that hit the jackpot in Shenzhen remain unclaimed, although the deadline for one, valued at 5 million yuan (US$606,000), is Thursday (Dec 16th).

The value of the other, a sports lottery tickets, is 1 million yuan and its prize-collecting deadline is Dec. 24.

Somebody bought the five-million-yuan lottery ticket in Guanlan, Bao¡¯an District. The other ticket was bought Nov. 25 in Longgang District. Both have 30 days to collect the prizes.

Since the winning numbers were announced, nobody has turned up with the winning tickets. But in the past two days, two people claimed they were winners of the 5-million-yuan ticket.

A man surnamed Guan said he regularly bought welfare lottery tickets and had always bought the same two sets of numbers. He said he lost his ticket while moving home.

Another person, identified as Fan, claimed he had misread the issue number of his ticket and had thrown it away.

He said his ticket bore the winning numbers. He later called the lottery office saying he wanted to give up his prize-claiming right.

A similar incident happened in September when a person bought a sports lottery ticket but failed to check its winning numbers. After a lot of publicity by the lottery center, the person found the ticket and collected the 2.2-million-yuan prize.

According to Huang Zhongmou, deputy director of the welfare lottery ticket center, if the prize money is not collected, it will be placed in the city's lottery adjustment fund, which will be used to top up the prize money when there are not enough lottery participants.

Editor: Wing