WINNIPEG — Check those lottery tickets closely before you throw them away.
Two lottery tickets sold in Winnipeg, worth more than $200,000, are still unclaimed – and the winners only have until the end of March to pick up the prize.
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The tickets include, an Extra ticket that was drawn on March 21, 2015, worth $100,000. There is also a Lotto Max ticket from March 27, 2015, worth $103,420.60. Both were purchased in Winnipeg,
“Most lottery prizes are claimed quickly,” said Western Canada Lottery Corporation spokesman, Kevin Van Egdom. “It’s certainly uncommon that a big prize goes unclaimed.”
The tickets expire one year from the draw date. Therefore, if the winner comes forward even a day after the deadline, they are out of luck. If it goes unclaimed, the prize money will be returned to the prize pool through augmented jackpots or through special bonus draws and promotions.
There are also two unclaimed tickets in Alberta. One is worth $10,000 and the winner has until March 21 to pick up the prize. The other is worth a whopping $250,000, and the deadline to claim it is May 29.
“It’s hard to say why tickets go unclaimed,” Van Egdom said, “It could be a lost ticket, accidentally thrown away, or I would hate to speculate, but someone could have passed away too.”
History of unclaimed tickets
Overall, about one per cent of prizes of Lotto 6/49 and Lotto Max go unclaimed. However, a large majority of these are small prizes (such as $5 and $10 tickets). It is very rare that large prizes expire unclaimed, according to the Western Canada Lottery Corporation.
In Manitoba, the largest amount of cash to expire was around $1 million in 2013.
The biggest unclaimed prize in Canada was a $14.9 million prize from the June 2006 LOTTO 6/49 draw.
WCLC said once a $4 million prize was claimed only two days before the due date, when the woman discovered the winning ticket in a “broken” purse she hadn’t used in months.
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