$70-million Lotto Max jackpot from June 2022 declared unclaimed

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) has declared the $70-million jackpot from the LOTTO MAX draw on June 28, 2022, has officially been unclaimed.

A province-wide campaign was in place to find the winner, which the OLG says generated almost 2,700 individual calls and emails from people claiming to have lost the ticket, but the winner was not found and the jackpot draw expired exactly one year from that date.

The deadline to validate the ticket at an OLG lottery terminal or present the ticket to OLG was 10:30 p.m. on June 28, 2023. OLG also says the ticket in question was never checked at a self-serve ticket checker or through the OLG app.

OLG previously said the $70-million winning ticket was purchased at an authorized lottery retailer in Scarborough.

So far, the largest unclaimed jackpot on record is $15 million, and that ticket was sold in British Columbia.

Lottery tickets generated by an OLG authorized lottery terminal, such as LOTTO MAX or LOTTO 6/49 expire one year following the draw date on the ticket, meaning all winning tickets must be validated prior to the expiry date in order for the prize to be collected.

Due to the high volume of lost ticket claims, OLG investigated each potential claim, but reported that none of those claims were successful.

“OLG has very detailed information about this winning ticket. However, as the ticket was purchased at a lottery retailer, we don’t know the identity of the person or group that purchased [it],” an OLG spokesperson said in a news release in May.

The $70-million prize money has been returned to the prize pool for future bonus games or promotions of national lottery games.

To avoid unclaimed lottery prizes, OLG asks players to sign their ticket as soon as it purchased, keep the ticket in a safe location, check the ticket as soon as the draw is complete or to purchase online to be notified directly by email if the ticket has won a prize.

With files from Lucas Casaletto of CityNews