JERUSALEM – Check your pockets and cupboards, officials urged Israelis on Monday after waiting three weeks for someone to step up and claim about $20 million, the Jewish state's largest-ever lottery prize.

There was one winning ticket for the December 26 lottery, with a first prize of 76 million shekels ($20.6 million, 14.3 million euros), but so far no one has come forward, Oved Hazan of Israel's state-run lottery told Channel 10 television news.

"The message we want to get out is: people, check your tickets," Hazan said.

"They probably don't know that they have won, it's a person who just knows they have not checked their ticket," said Hazan holding up a large version of the 76 million-shekel cheque.

The longest Israel's lottery officials have waited for someone to claim a jackpot prize is three months. In that case, the lucky man's ticket was found lying at the back of a cupboard.

The winner of this prize has another five months to claim the millions before they revert to the state's coffers, Hazan said.