Well, it happened. It really bloody happened.
A 6/49 ticket purchased in the northern Vancouver Island region of B.C. expired at midnight on March 18, according to an email I just received from the BC Lottery Corporation.
“I can confirm that the ticket expired and the prize was not claimed,” said the BCLC spokesperson. “Unclaimed prize money for national games, including Lotto 6/49 and Lotto Max, goes back into the prize pool.”
All of my recent nightmares have come true. My OCD has been triggered and I’m just staring at my computer screen.
I wrote recently about the fact that I’m not sleeping well these days worrying that someone is going to miss out on becoming a millionaire.
And now it’s happened. All I can say is I hope the person who bought the ticket never finds out because I don’t know how you deal with knowing you missed out on that kind of security.
Yeah, I get it, life isn’t always rosy for lottery winners, but it sure doesn’t hurt.
All lottery prize winners have 52 weeks from the draw date printed on their ticket to come forward to claim their prize and all tickets are valid for one year after the date of the draw.
It is possible that the person knew and just decided they didn’t care, but I doubt it. Perhaps the ticket fell out of their pocket are got put through the laundry.
I don’t know. I’m not sure I want to know.
In 2020, BCLC paid out more than $691 million in lottery prizes.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
