The ticket was worth nearly �2m

The buyer of the winning ticket had until 2300 BST on Thursday to come forward.

The ticket for the draw on 30 November, 2002, was bought somewhere in the Torfaen area in south Wales.

The six winning numbers - 6, 7, 20, 29, 37 and 39 - scooped a jackpot of �1,971,095.

Six months on, despite efforts by Lotto operators Camelot to trace the ticket holder, the money is still sitting in the bank, gaining interest.

If none of the claims made is found to be valid, the money will now go to the lottery's good causes fund.

We are just trying to jog people's memories and hope that we can trigger a chain of events which will lead to that ticket being discovered Camelot's Bryan Thickins

The winning numbers were advertised repeatedly in local media in the months after the draw.

Camelot even appealed to nine police forces throughout Britain who send officers to be trained at Cwmbran in Torfaen.

A local tourist attraction, the mining museum Big Pit, joined in the hunt for the ticket holder.

'Memories'

Visitors over the Bank Holiday were reminded to check old tickets in case they had overlooked it previously.

"The week of the draw was the last week that Big Pit was open before our two-month winter shutdown," said spokeswoman Kathryn Stowers before the deadline passed.

"We have many regular visitors and some may have brought children here as an early Christmas treat and they may recall buying a ticket as part of that special day out."

Bryan Thickins of Camelot said: "We are just trying to jog people's memories and hope that we can trigger a chain of events which will lead to that ticket being discovered."

Meanwhile, the search is on for the winner of another unclaimed Lotto jackpot of �579,701.

The ticket was bought in the Caerphilly area of south Wales on 5 March.