Unclaimed $70M Lotto Max ticket now official

A life-changing lottery ticket has officially been declared unclaimed.

The $70-million Lotto Max ticket’s rightful owner was never found, according to an Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) news release on Thursday.

Almost 2,700 people came forward to claim the prize, but the OLG said the authentic ticket-purchaser was not among them.

The big ticket was bought in Scarborough on June 28, 2022.

It expired after hitting its one-year mark last month. According to the rules, players have one year from the draw date to claim their winnings, or the prize is declared void.

“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,” the OLG said.

OLG spokesperson Tony Bitonti previously told CTV News Toronto that this was the biggest unclaimed ticket in Canadian history.

Bitonti said the ticket was never validated at an OLG lottery terminal, checked at a self-serve ticket checker or logged through the OLG App. More likely, he said it was left in the pocket of a pair of jeans or mistakenly thrown out.

The unclaimed $70 million has now been returned to the lottery prize pool.