Where is Gisborne's missing millionaire?

Lotto NZ is asking people to check their tickets as $1 million is yet to be claimed. Photo / File

Could you be unwittingly sitting on a million dollars?

Lotto New Zealand is on the lookout for a $1 million Lotto winner in Gisborne after a ticket sold at the Kaiti Supervalue on August 24 is yet to be claimed.

While most winners are quick to claim their winnings, this isn't the first time a major prize has gone unclaimed for some time.

Only last month, a Hamilton man won $333,333 after finding a missing Lotto ticket in his work desk drawer. The ticket had been purchased six months earlier and had been sitting there the whole time.

In 2013, it took an Auckland man seven months to get around to checking his Lotto tickets - but it was well worth doing, when he discovered a ticket worth $1 million in the drawer of his coffee table.

And in April 2010 another Aucklander's life changed when they checked a Lotto ticket they found while cleaning their house - and managed to claim their $509,937 prize just one day before it expired.

The winner has 12 months from the date of the draw in which to claim their prize.

Anyone who bought their ticket from Kaiti Supervalue for the August 24 Lotto draw should write their name on the back of the ticket and check it at a Lotto outlet, online at mylotto.co.nz or through the Lotto NZ ticket-checker app.