A massive lotto prize that still wasn't validated after a year has officially been declared unclaimed.

The Ontario Lottery Gaming Corporation (OLG) announced the ticket's status on Thursday morning following a province-wide awareness campaign.

In what it called "a rare occurrence in Canadian lottery history," the OLG reported on June 29, 2023, that the physical $70 million lotto ticket was not validated at a terminal or presented to the corporation on or before the deadline of 10:30 p.m. June 28, 2023.

The ticket was sold at a lotto retailer in Scarborough. The OLG also confirmed that it was never checked at a self-serve ticket checker or through the app.

Prior to the expiry deadline, almost 2,700 calls and emails from people claiming to have lost the ticket were logged by OLG's Customer Care Centre.

"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," stated the company.

"Now that this process is complete, we can report that none of those claims were successful. Thus, the $70 million prize is officially unclaimed."

What likely happened to the unclaimed ticket

OLG spokesperson Tony Bitonti told Daily Hive earlier this month that it's likely that the person lost the slip.

This is why the corporation advises players to do the following:

• Sign their ticket as soon as it purchased at a retail location
• Keep the ticket in a safe and memorable location until draw time
• Check the ticket as soon as the draw is complete
• Purchase a lottery ticket on OLG.ca, and you will be notified by email if your ticket has won a prize

"Keep it on your fridge, in your junk drawer, but check it right away," said Bitonti. "Don't forget about them."
 

What happens to the lotto prize now?

The OLG says the $70 million windfall has been returned to the prize pool for future bonus games or promotions of national lottery games like Lotto Max, Lotto 6/49 and Daily Grind.

If you happen to find the golden ticket and try to validate it now, unfortunately, you're too late.

According to the OLG, if an attempt is made to validate a winning lottery ticket past its one-year deadline, the customer will get a message from the terminal saying their ticket is expired.

Information about other unclaimed tickets can be found on the OLG.ca Unclaimed Tickets page.