Some people in Ontario are leaving hundreds of thousands — and even millions, in some cases — of dollars on the table.
That’s because either they aren’t aware they’ve won the lottery, or have lost the winning ticket.
The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. (OLG) says a handful of big winners have not been claimed. They update the list every two months.
The whopper on the most recently updated list (as of Oct. 21), was a $70 million LOTTO MAX grand prize purchased for the June 28 draw in Scarborough. Heading into the holiday season, the OLG confirmed that $70 million win remained unclaimed.
Tony Bitonti, OLG director of media relations, says customers are given two months to check their tickets before prizes are deemed “unclaimed.” They are then added to the list.
Bitonti said that, “while having a $70 M ticket still unclaimed is rare … it’s not unusual for people to get financial advice or get their affairs in order before coming to claim a big prize. They wait several months to claim to ensure they are prepared to deal with this life changing windfall.”
Another large haul that hasn’t yet been claimed is a $7 million Daily Grand ticket by someone in rural Hamilton from the July 18 draw.
Three wins worth a cool $1 million each, all purchased in West Toronto, remain unclaimed. West Toronto must be lucky, as there’s also a $500,000 unclaimed prize purchased there.
As well, there’s an outstanding $500,000 July 7 DAILY GRAND win from Oshawa; a $373,118.20 LOTTO MAX ticket from April 1 in Toronto East; a $359,929.60 winner from LOTTARIO farther out in Stratford and a $208,022.40 LOTTO MAX winner from rural/Toronto East.
There are also several unclaimed winners in excess of $100,000 each out there.
Smaller wins include $25,000 from the February 12 LOTTO 649 draw by somebody in rural/Toronto West and a handful of $10,000 prizes.
Bitonti said “customers have one year from the draw date to claim prizes from tickets that come out of the lottery terminal. INSTANT tickets have expiry dates printed on the backs of the tickets and those expiry dates are usually longer due to the fact that the tickets are printed well in advance of them going on sale and the amount of time they can remain on sale.”
Those who buy online will be alerted if they win by email.
If it gets close enough to the wire, OLG will send out a media release to increase publicity and hopefully find the winner.
Otherwise the money will go back to players through bonus games or promotions, if they were from national draws. Unclaimed wins from Ontario-specific games are returned to the Ontario government under the OLGC Act.
The OLG says they annually pay out 99% of the prize money available. That worked out to more than $2.5 billion in prizes last year. They added it’s rare for major prizes ($10,000 or more) to go unclaimed, but it does happen sometimes.
The largest unclaimed prize in Ontario was $5 million from a LOTTO 6/49 draw in 2005. It was sold in Northeastern Ontario.
The OLG recommends customers check seasonal clothing for tickets they haven’t checked yet.
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