The search for the winner of a multimillion-dollar lottery ticket sold in Bellingham is over. A spokesperson for Washington's Lottery confirmed that a person identified only as Calumet T. claimed their $8.2 million prize on July 8, 2026. The winning ticket was purchased at the ARCO gas station on Meridian Street earlier this year and had been set to expire at the end of July, creating some urgency around the claim as the deadline approached without a winner coming forward.
The Winning Ticket and How It Was Claimed
The ticket was sold at the ARCO on Meridian Street, one of the most heavily trafficked commercial corridors in Bellingham running north from downtown through Barkley and out toward Ferndale. The corridor is lined with gas stations, grocery stores, and retail shops that collectively serve a large daily volume of customers, making it the kind of place where a lottery ticket purchase is an entirely routine transaction that most buyers promptly forget. That routine quality is part of what makes large unclaimed prizes so common: the buyer pockets the ticket, life continues, and weeks or months pass before anyone thinks to check.
The winner, identified by the state lottery only with the first name Calumet and last initial T., came forward on July 8 to collect the $8.2 million prize. Washington's Lottery allows winners to claim prizes in person at the lottery office, and prize claims are a matter of public record under state law, though the lottery does not publish winners' full names without their consent. The partial identification balances the public's interest in knowing that prizes have been legitimately claimed against the privacy interests of winners who may not want widespread attention following a major windfall.
The ticket had been generating local attention as the expiration date approached without a claim being filed. Washington State lottery tickets expire one year from the date of the draw, and tickets worth tens of millions of dollars occasionally go unclaimed, a situation that benefits the state's public schools and other programs that receive a share of lottery revenue. In this case, Calumet T. got there in time with weeks to spare before the July deadline, ensuring the prize went to its rightful winner rather than reverting to state coffers.
One Bellingham Ticket Still Unclaimed
While the $8.2 million story has a happy ending, there is still money waiting to be claimed in Bellingham. A second winning lottery ticket worth $10,000 was sold at JJ's In and Out on Holly Street in downtown Bellingham. The winning numbers for that ticket are 6, 8, 10, and 12. The deadline to claim that prize is November 29, 2026, which gives the holder several months to come forward, but deadlines have a way of arriving faster than expected, and $10,000 is a meaningful sum for most households.
JJ's In and Out on Holly Street is a longtime downtown Bellingham convenience store situated in the heart of the city's commercial core, a location that sees foot traffic from a wide variety of customers including office workers, students, and residents of nearby neighborhoods. Lottery tickets are sold at hundreds of retailers across Whatcom County, and winning tickets sometimes sit in jacket pockets, glove compartments, junk drawers, or desk organizers for months before their owners realize what they hold. Washington's Lottery has a ticket checker available on its website and through its mobile app, making it straightforward to verify a ticket's status without visiting a retailer or deciphering small print on an aging paper stub.
How Washington Lottery Prizes Work
Washington State operates its lottery as a public agency under the Washington's Lottery umbrella. A portion of proceeds from ticket sales goes to the Washington Opportunity Pathways Account, which funds early childhood education programs, higher education financial aid, and problem gambling treatment services. The lottery's public benefit mission means that unclaimed prizes do not simply disappear but are redirected to those same programs, providing a backstop of public benefit even when winners fail to come forward.
Prizes under $600 can be claimed at any licensed lottery retailer. Prizes between $600 and $249,999 must be claimed at a regional lottery office or by mail. Prizes of $250,000 or more, including the $8.2 million claimed by Calumet T., must be claimed in person at the lottery's Olympia headquarters, where claimants complete identity verification and tax documentation before receiving their prize. The in-person requirement for large prizes exists to protect against fraud and to ensure that the identity of the claimant can be verified against the original ticket purchase records.
Large lottery prizes in Washington are subject to federal income tax, which for an $8.2 million prize would represent a substantial withholding at the time of payment. The state of Washington does not impose a personal income tax, meaning state tax is not withheld from lottery winnings here, a meaningful difference compared to states like California or Oregon where state income tax applies to gambling winnings and can claim an additional several percent of the total prize. For Washington residents, the federal tax obligation is the primary one to account for in financial planning after a large prize claim.
For Bellingham residents curious about other unclaimed prizes in the area, Washington's Lottery maintains an online search tool organized by zip code that allows residents to check whether any winning tickets sold locally remain uncollected. The $10,000 ticket sold at JJ's In and Out on Holly Street remains unclaimed as of this report, with a November 29 deadline. If you purchased a lottery ticket at that store with the numbers 6, 8, 10, and 12 anywhere on it, it is worth pulling out your receipts and old tickets and checking before the fall deadline passes.
