Check your pockets! Millions of dollars in lottery winnings go unclaimed every year

A lottery ticket worth millions may be sitting on someone’s dresser, or in their jacket pocket — and they don’t even know it.

The unclaimed $64-million ticket was purchased in Gloucester County, N.B., in April and it expires soon, according to the Atlantic Lottery. If no one cashes in, it would become the largest prize to go unclaimed in Atlantic Canada.

“At the beginning, it was crazy. It was the talk almost every day,” said Marlene Legacy, who owns the Last Stop Convenience Store outside of Bathurst, N.B., which may have sold the winning lottery ticket.

The ticket is just one of many that goes unclaimed every year, according to lottery corporations from across Canada. Atlantic Lottery says roughly one per cent of prizes go unclaimed each year. According to Lotto Quebec, about $10 million goes unclaimed each year in the province, and the numbers are similar in Ontario.

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) says even though it’s just one per cent that goes unclaimed each year, it adds up.

How often does this happen?

When word got out that the winning ticket was purchased in Gloucester County, speculation swirled, says Legacy. Some said it was a group of people that worked at Walmart, while another said someone had lost the winning ticket while hunting in the woods.

“Everyone was wondering who had the lucky ticket. There was just all kinds of different rumours.”

To date, no one has stepped forward to claim the mega prize. Atlantic Lottery says the ticket will expire on April 15, and if that happens, the prize money will go into an unclaimed prize fund and be added to future winnings.

“Ensuring players receive the prizes they are entitled to is the most important thing we do here at Atlantic Lottery,” said Lindsay Meekins, public relations strategist for Atlantic Lottery, in an emailed statement.

Could you be a millionaire and don’t know it?

The clock is ticking on a $64-million-dollar lottery ticket that was sold in northeastern New Brunswick last April. The ticket expires one year after purchase and it’s still unclaimed.

“We are using both social and traditional media to help raise awareness that a prize is outstanding and to remind players to look for any tickets they may not have checked yet, in hopes that a winner will come forward.”

Tony Bitonti, OLG’s director of media relations, says for the most part, it’s smaller prizes in Ontario that go unclaimed, and cases such as what happened in New Brunswick are rare.

“If they see that, ‘I just won a free play or a $2 or $5 prize,’ they’ll put off claiming that money, and then that ticket goes missing,” said Bitonti.

He says there can be lots of reasons why people don’t collect their winnings right away, especially if it’s a big sum. People who win big money are required to go public in order to accept the money, so often they want to talk to their lawyer or financial adviser first.

Finding the winner

After a while, Bitonti says OLG makes efforts to match prize winners with their earnings, through news releases and social media.

In the past, the lottery and gaming company has gone to great lengths to unite a winner with their money.

In 2012, there was a $50-million Lotto Max prize that went unclaimed for eight months. OLG knew the winning ticket was sold at a Shoppers Drug Mart in Cambridge, Ont., and they knew what time the ticket was sold, so they were able to look at the security video of the person buying the winning ticket.

“On that video, we saw that the person actually bought their ticket with a credit card and used the loyalty card for Shoppers Drug Mart,” said Bitonti.

The company started a media blitz to get the person to come forward. He says they had a good idea who it was, but typically they don’t approach the person. They decided to finally get in contact with the woman to see if she had the ticket.

After knocking on her door and explaining the situation, they found she did not have the winning ticket anymore. But because they were able to confirm she bought the ticket, and that it was likely thrown away, they were still able to give her the $50 million.

“It’s a rare thing that we know exactly who that person is that bought that ticket. And because she was able to give us some more information around buying tickets at that store, we actually did pay her,” said Bitonti.

Still unclaimed

Bitonti says they aren’t always able to find that winner. There was a $70-million jackpot that went unclaimed in Ontario last year. In B.C., the largest ticket to go unclaimed was a $15-million Lotto Max prize, which expired on Aug. 13, 2022.

And that could be the fate for the $64-million winning ticket out of New Brunswick. Legacy believes whoever had it has probably lost it.

“I’d be sad for whoever does have that ticket. Can you imagine finding the ticket after the date? Like you only have a year to claim it, so imagine someone had it tucked away in their drawer, in their jacket pocket and didn’t realize till after the date,” said Legacy.

“I don’t know what I would do with myself. I’d be so mad at myself if that was me.”

To avoid such a fate, Bitonti has some tips for lottery players. He suggests always checking your tickets, signing them, and not putting a ticket in your pocket, especially a seasonal jacket.

He says the best way to not lose a ticket is to buy it online. Then you get an email telling you that you won, and you don’t have to worry about missing out on your millions.