Unclaimed Lottery Prizes in Canada: Deadlines and Where It Goes

A cardboard lost and found box full of forgotten belongings — Photo: Paul Gorbould, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

For draw games such as Lotto Max, Lotto 6/49 and Daily Grand, a winning ticket in Canada has to be claimed within roughly a year of the draw date. OLG, the Western Canada Lottery Corporation and Atlantic Lottery all describe the period as one year from the draw; Loto-Québec gives 365 days following the draw; BCLC states 52 weeks from the draw date printed on the ticket. Scratch tickets run on separate rules, usually an expiry date printed on the back. When the window closes, the prize cannot be claimed, and the money is either put back into future prizes or passed to the provincial government, depending on which game it came from.

The detail matters more than it seems. Each operator publishes lists of large prizes that nobody has come forward for, and those lists regularly include six- and seven-figure amounts. The usual cause is not a lost fortune in a drawer but a ticket that was never checked.

Claim deadlines by province

The table below sets out the claim period for draw-game tickets as each operator states it. It covers the five lottery corporations that sell tickets across the provinces and territories.

Province or territory	Operator	Claim period for draw games
Ontario	OLG	Exactly one year from the draw date (terminal-printed tickets)
British Columbia	BCLC	Up to 52 weeks from the draw date
Quebec	Loto-Québec	365 days following the draw
Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut	Western Canada Lottery Corporation (WCLC)	One year from the draw date; Sport Select: one year from the date the last selected game was played
Atlantic Canada	Atlantic Lottery	One year from the date of the draw; sports wagers: 744 days from the date of purchase

The wording differs slightly from operator to operator, and the operator's own rules govern any particular ticket. Rules can change, so the terms on the ticket and on the operator's website are the ones to check.

How the clock actually runs

The starting point is the draw date, not the day you bought the ticket. BCLC is explicit that the period runs from the draw date printed on the ticket. That has a practical consequence for tickets bought well in advance or covering several draws: each draw on the ticket has its own date, and a win on an early draw starts its own countdown.

Notice also the units. Fifty-two weeks is 364 days, one day short of a calendar year. Anyone in British Columbia who assumes they have until the anniversary of the draw is cutting it finer than they think. The safe habit everywhere is to treat the earliest possible reading of the rule as the deadline.

Two games stand out in the table. WCLC's Sport Select counts from the date the last selected game was played, because a parlay cannot be settled until every event on it has finished. Atlantic Lottery gives sports wagers 744 days from purchase, a much longer window than its draw games and one that runs from the sale rather than the result.

Scratch tickets follow different rules

Instant games do not use the one-year draw rule. OLG states that INSTANT prizes can be claimed until the expiry date printed on the back of the ticket. WCLC says the same of SCRATCH & WIN: the expiry date is printed on the back. Atlantic Lottery goes further in the other direction: it says most Scratch'N Win prizes do not have an expiry period at all, although some carry a fixed expiry date.

The point is that there is no single national rule for scratch tickets. A forgotten scratch card can still be valid long after a draw ticket from the same week has expired, or it can have lapsed. The back of the card is the only reliable answer.

Where unclaimed prize money goes

The destination depends on whether the prize came from a national game, shared across the country, or a regional game run by one corporation alone.

National games

Lotto Max, Lotto 6/49 and Daily Grand are national games. The operators describe the same basic outcome in their own words:

OLG: unclaimed national-game prizes are returned to prize funds for future bonus draws and promotions.
WCLC: unclaimed prizes on national games are returned to players through jackpots and bonus draws.
Loto-Québec: unclaimed prizes are redistributed to players as bonus prizes and special draws.
BCLC: unclaimed money is given back to players through bonuses and promotions.
Atlantic Lottery: unclaimed prizes of national games (Lotto 6/49, Daily Grand, Lotto Max and certain scratch tickets) are handled by the Interprovincial Lottery Corporation rather than by Atlantic Lottery itself.

In other words, an expired national jackpot does not disappear. It resurfaces as part of the prize money in later draws, which is how expired wins end up funding jackpots, bonus draws and promotions for other players.

Regional games

Regional games are a different matter. OLG says unclaimed prizes from Ontario-only games go to the province to support public priorities such as healthcare and schooling. WCLC says unclaimed prizes on its regional games are returned to the member provinces and territories as revenue. Atlantic Lottery says unclaimed prizes on its own games are transferred to a special prize fund and used for prizes in later draws.

So the same lapse of attention can end in two places. Miss a Lotto Max prize and the money goes back to players. Miss a prize on a game run by one corporation alone and, in Ontario or the West, it can end up as provincial revenue.

Add-ons expire too

Encore and Extra prizes are printed on the same terminal ticket as the main game, and they expire on the same terms. WCLC lists EXTRA among the games whose tickets expire one year from the draw date, and OLG's list of unclaimed prizes has included Encore and Encore Lotto Max wins. Because many players check only the main numbers, the add-on is an easy prize to miss. Our guide to Encore, Extra and Tag explains how each one is matched.

How to check whether a prize is waiting

Operators publish lists of large unclaimed prizes, usually with the game, the amount, the draw and the area where the ticket was sold:

OLG keeps an unclaimed tickets page that it says is updated approximately every eight weeks. Its contact line is 1-800-387-0098, and it has a Lost Ticket webform.
Loto-Québec lists all unclaimed prizes of $100,000 or more in the Useful Information tab of the Lotteries section of its website, and says it alerts ticket buyers when a prize over $100,000 still has not been claimed after several weeks.
WCLC groups unclaimed prizes by province and territory on its website; its Player Care line for questions is 1-800-665-3313.

Those lists cover large prizes. A $20 or $100 win will not appear on them, so the only check for smaller amounts is scanning the ticket at a retailer or in the operator's app before the deadline. For a fuller picture of the games themselves, see our overview of Canadian lotteries.

Protecting a claim before the deadline

Sign the ticket. OLG states it will not process a prize claim where the ticket has not been signed. BCLC's advice is to sign a ticket immediately after buying it.
Keep the physical ticket safe. BCLC warns that if you lose your ticket, you will not be able to claim any winnings; knowing the ticket number is no promise of recovery.
Choose the claim channel early. At OLG, only prizes under $1,000 can be redeemed at a retailer. Online claims are typically processed within five business days of a complete submission, while mail claims, open to any amount, take roughly six to eight weeks.
Do not leave it to the last week. If a prize is large enough to need a claim centre or the mail, the deadline is the date by which the operator's process must start, not the date you begin looking for the ticket.

A note on "unclaimed prize" messages

Publicity about missing winners creates an opening for fraud. The process each operator describes runs one way: the winner comes forward with the ticket. None of the operator pages cited here describes contacting players to collect a fee or bank details in order to release a prize. A call, text or email announcing an unclaimed lottery win you never entered, or asking for a payment to release it, is a reason to stop. Our page on casino scams covers the common patterns.

This article is general information drawn from the operators' published rules, not legal advice; the rules printed on your ticket and on the operator's site take precedence.

Lottery play and other real-money gambling in Canada are for adults: 19 and over in most provinces, 18 and over in Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec. If checking tickets has turned into chasing them, our responsible gaming page lists support services by province.

Questions readers ask

How long do I have to claim a lottery prize in Canada?

For draw games, about a year from the draw date. OLG, WCLC and Atlantic Lottery say one year, Loto-Québec says 365 days following the draw, and BCLC says up to 52 weeks from the draw date.

Does the deadline start when I buy the ticket?

No. For draw games the period runs from the draw date printed on the ticket. Atlantic Lottery's sports wagers are an exception: they run 744 days from the date of purchase.

Do scratch tickets expire after one year too?

Not necessarily. OLG and WCLC instant tickets expire on the date printed on the back, and Atlantic Lottery says most Scratch'N Win prizes have no expiry, though some have a fixed date.

What happens to unclaimed Lotto Max and Lotto 6/49 prizes?

They go back to players. Operators describe returning them to prize funds for bonus draws, jackpots, special draws and promotions.

Where do unclaimed regional lottery prizes go?

That varies by operator. OLG sends unclaimed Ontario-only prizes to the province, WCLC returns regional unclaimed prizes to its member provinces and territories as revenue, and Atlantic Lottery puts them into a special prize fund for later draws.

Can I claim a prize if I lost the ticket?

BCLC states that a lost ticket cannot be used to claim winnings. OLG has a Lost Ticket webform, but neither operator promises recovery.

Unclaimed lottery prizes in Canada: claim deadlines by province and where the money goes