Almost 50 million euros: Winning millions in Canada expires

A multimillion-dollar lottery prize was recently forfeited in Canada. The winner failed to present the ticket in time, resulting in the loss of CAD 70 million. This is the equivalent of almost 50 million euros. But why was the prize not claimed and what will happen to the millions?

Just over two weeks ago, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) announced that the winner had failed to redeem their ticket. The lucky person was given a generous one year to collect the prize - apparently not long enough.

Lucky ticket bought in June 2022

The unknown winner had already won the multi-million dollar jackpot in the 28 June 2022 draw. The ticket in question was sold in a suburb of the megacity of Toronto. Shortly before the one-year deadline expired, the lottery company appealed to all players to check their previous tickets to find the lucky winner - unfortunately without success.

The winning numbers were 8, 19, 22, 41, 42, 46 and 47. The player also correctly predicted the bonus ball 10. With these numbers, the player would have won around 70 million Canadian dollars. This is equivalent to around 48.4 million euros. However, as no one came forward by the end of June 2023, the prize has now been forfeited.

The forfeited million-dollar prize has now entered the record books. The previous highest unredeemed lottery prize in Canada was CAD 15 million, won in the summer of 2021. Now the 70 million Canadian dollars will go back into the pot.

Winning millions in the lottery is not necessarily a ticket to a carefree future, as a young lottery player from the UK shows. The youngest ever lottery millionaire, she is now broke and back at school.

Why wasn't the million-dollar prize collected?

Of course, we can only speculate as to why the ticket, worth the equivalent of almost 50 million euros, was not handed in on time. The most likely explanation is that the owner simply lost the ticket. It is also possible that the winner has died in the meantime and no one knew about the ticket.

If the winner does find the ticket with the above numbers, it will unfortunately be of no use to them. The prize is now irretrievably lost. In Germany, Lotto Baden-Württemberg was granted a licence for virtual slot games a few weeks ago.

Image source: https://pixabay.com/de/photos/lotto-lottoschein-schein-gewinn-484782/