A million dollar question is swirling around Ontario’s cottage country as time runs out for an unclaimed winning lottery ticket sold nearly a year ago in the Muskoka area.
The owner must step forward before July 24 at 6 p.m. in order to collect the $1 million prize.
The Lotto Max MaxMillions ticket with the numbers 3-17-26-29-39-44-48 won the July 22, 2016 draw. The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) has confirmed the ticket was sold somewhere near Huntsville, Ont.
The OLG says the odds of winning are 1:28,633,528 per $5 play.
A spokesperson for OLG says it’s not uncommon for smaller prizes to go unclaimed, but high-dollar wins rarely go unnoticed. The crown corporation said just 1.2 per cent of prizes were not claimed by their winners in 2015-2016.
“It’s quite rare that we see a big prize, like $1 million or over $10,000 that actually goes unclaimed,” Galit Solomon told CTV Barrie on Wednesday.
Huntsville is the largest town in Ontario’s Muskoka Region. The area is popular with cottagers and campers looking to get away from the Greater Toronto Area. Many locals are betting a forgetful tourist is the likely winner, having already searched their wallets and purses.
“I think it is one of the tourists that came up here and bought it, because otherwise you would have heard about it by now,” said one man outside a local convenience store.
According to the OLG, prizes larger than $250,000 must be claimed through the OLG Prize Centre in downtown Toronto, which can be reached at 1-800-387-0098.
With a report from CTV Barrie’s Brandon Gonez
