A winning ticket worth C$40m (£21.4m) almost expired unclaimed, and the only reason it did not is that its owner came forward hours before midnight. According to the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, the ticket was validated through a lottery terminal on the last day it could be redeemed. Tony Bitonti, OLG's director of media relations, told the BBC that the winner had stepped forward just in time, and OLG says it has contacted the winner to confirm rightful ownership. That is a relief for the winner, but it should not be the system's plan.
The ticket was bought on 28 October 2025 at a retailer in Grey County, Ontario, and almost a year passed before anyone claimed the prize. Grey County includes the Blue Mountains and Owen Sound, and OLG has said it is a popular tourist destination, which suggests a visitor may have bought the ticket and simply forgotten it after going home. Bitonti described the situation as a "sad part" because the ticket had not been checked on the OLG app or at the store. He is right that checking is the simplest protection a player has, but a system that depends on people remembering a paper slip for a year is leaving too much to chance.
The stakes are real. If this ticket had expired, the lottery would have kept the $40m for future games. The report also notes that a $70m Lotto Max prize from 28 June 2022 in Scarborough, Ontario, was never claimed, even though OLG said 2,700 people called and emailed about it and none was the winner. Bitonti said about one per cent of prizes go unclaimed each year, though those are usually much smaller. Those figures suggest that large unclaimed jackpots are not rare enough to ignore.
OLG should make claiming easier and more visible. Reminders sent through the app or by email, clearer notices at retailers, and a longer or more prominent claim window for large jackpots would all reduce the chance that a winner loses a life-changing sum over a missed deadline. The corporation has already urged players to search their pockets, handbags and glove compartments, which shows it understands the problem. The next step is to build prevention into the process, so that the final hours before expiration are not the moment a fortune is nearly lost.