Following a province-wide awareness campaign which generated significant media attention, and an exhaustive examination of almost 2,700 individual claims, Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) is declaring the $70 million jackpot from the Tuesday, June 28, 2022, LOTTO MAX draw officially unclaimed.
As reported on June 29th, the physical $70 million winning ticket, which was sold at a lottery retailer in Scarborough, was not validated at an OLG lottery terminal or presented to OLG on or before the deadline of 10:30 pm June 28, 2023. OLG can also confirm the ticket in question was never checked at a self-serve ticket checker or through the OLG App.
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. This means all winning tickets must be validated prior to the expiry date in order for the prize to be collected.
Prior to the expiry deadline, almost 2,700 calls and emails from people claiming to have lost the ticket were logged by OLG’s Customer Care Centre.
OLG is committed to paying the right prize to the rightful owner of a winning ticket—every time. 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. Thus, the $70 million prize is officially unclaimed.
The $70 million prize money has been returned to the prize pool for future bonus games or promotions of national lottery games, namely, LOTTO MAX, LOTTO 6/49 and DAILY GRAND.
To avoid unclaimed lottery prizes, OLG asks lottery players to:
- Sign their ticket as soon as it purchased at a retail location;
- Keep the ticket in a safe and memorable location until draw time;
- Check the ticket as soon as the draw is complete; or
- Purchase a lottery ticket on OLG.ca and you will be notified by email if your ticket has won a prize.
OLG offers players several easy ways to check lottery tickets by using the OLG App, by using the self-serve ticket checker at lottery retail locations or asking the retailer to check the lottery ticket through the lottery terminal.
Information about other unclaimed tickets can be found on the OLG.ca Unclaimed Tickets page.