Canada's C$40m Lotto Ticket Expires at Midnight, and the Winner Still Has Not Come Forward

A lottery jackpot ticket worth C$40m in Canada expires at midnight on Wednesday, and almost a year on, the winning ticket holder still has not come forward. The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) said the ticket will expire unless the rightful holder comes forward.

OLG said the Lotto Max jackpot ticket was purchased a year ago at a retailer in Grey County, Ontario. The county, which includes the Blue Mountains and Owen Sound, is a popular tourist destination, which means someone may have bought the ticket while visiting and forgotten to check it after coming home.

Tony Bitonti, OLG's media relations coordinator, told CTV News that the sad part was that the ticket had not been checked on the OLG app or at a store. He said they had been waiting almost a year, with a little less than 24 hours left before expiry.

OLG also published the winning numbers: 06, 14, 17, 19, 26, 43 and 45, with bonus number 27.

The lottery corporation urged players to check places such as clothing pockets, handbags, backpacks, wallets and vehicle glove compartments to try to find the ticket.

If the ticket expires, OLG said, the $40m prize will be kept for future games.

It would not be the first such case in Canada. On 28 June 2022, someone in Scarborough, Ontario, won a $70m Lotto Max draw, but no ticket holder ever came forward. OLG said at the time that about 2,700 people called and emailed about the ticket, but not one of them was the winner.

Atlantic Lottery, another government-owned corporation that manages lotteries, told Canadian media that about one per cent of prizes go unclaimed, although those are often much smaller sums.

Last week, an Alberta resident won Canada's largest-ever lottery jackpot of $90m. That winner has yet to be publicly identified.