Winning $63 Million Lottery Jackpot Will Expire If Ticket Holder Doesn’t Come Forward

— -- A lottery ticket holder in California stands to lose a $63 million jackpot if he or she doesn’t step forward to claim the prize before it expires by the end of the business day Thursday.

The SuperLotto ticket was purchased Aug. 8, 2015. The winning ticket, featuring the numbers 1, 16, 30, 33, 46 and the mega number 24, was sold at a 7-Eleven in Chatsworth.

If the winner fails to claim the prize by Thursday’s deadline, the jackpot would be the third biggest to go unclaimed in U.S. history.

The store where the ticket was bought is even posting signs to get the word out. 7-Eleven's corporate office says it will only use the store's surveillance video to help lottery officials confirm the winner.

If no one claims the winnings, the money would go toward the California public schools.

Clarence Jackson is someone who knows what the lottery winner will feel like if he or she does not step forward in time.

Jackson purchased a nearly $6 million lottery ticket in October 1995 but didn't realize he had a winning ticket until one year later. When Jackson tried to cash in the winning ticket, he says lottery officials in Connecticut told him he was too late.

“We never knew until the night it expired, two hours before the expiration,” Jackson said today on “Good Morning America.” “It was a Sunday night. We thought we were supposed to take it to lottery headquarters and on Sunday night, the headquarters, they’re not open.

Jackson said the lottery ticket was with his dad who was hospitalized with emphysema.

“He was in the hospital for most of that year [and] he came home a week before the expiration date,” Jackson said.

While Jackson has spent the past years trying to redeem his winning ticket, he says he can see a silver lining to not having become a multi-millionaire more than 20 years ago.

“Back then, I must say, I would have been too young and I would have blown all the money,” Jackson said. “I was living a different lifestyle. I was trying to get into the music business back then and I knew I’d be dead or broke now.”

Jackson also offered specific advice to the California lottery winner.

"He or she has to make sure they find out and please get an attorney and a financial advisor and please do not let the money go to their head," Jackson said.