Canada’s Largest Unclaimed Lottery Ticket Officially Declared Void
OLD $70M Ticket Remains Unclaimed After Over a Year
Tony Bitonti, Director of Media Relations at the OLG, discusses the extensive search for the missing ticket holder.
Lotto Max Ticket Officially Declared Unclaimed
The $70-million Lotto Max ticket’s rightful owner was never found, according to an announcement from the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG).
A life-changing lottery ticket has officially been declared unclaimed. The $70-million Lotto Max ticket’s rightful owner was never found, according to an Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) news release on Thursday. Almost 2,700 people came forward to claim the prize, but the OLG said the authentic ticket-purchaser was not among them.
The ticket was purchased in Scarborough on June 28, 2022. It expired after reaching its one-year deadline last month. According to OLG rules, players have one year from the draw date to claim their winnings, or the prize is declared void.
“Due to the high volume of lost ticket claims, OLG’s dedicated team of lottery investigators took the time necessary to thoroughly review each and every potential claim. Now that this process is complete, we can report that none of those claims were successful,” the OLG stated.
OLG spokesperson Tony Bitonti previously told CTV News Toronto that this was the biggest unclaimed ticket in Canadian history. Bitonti said the ticket was never validated at an OLG lottery terminal, checked at a self-serve ticket checker, or logged through the OLG App. He suggested it was likely left in a pocket or mistakenly thrown away.
The unclaimed $70 million has now been returned to the lottery prize pool.
