Winning a million dollars would be a dream come true for most people. By the same token it would be a nightmare if they won and didn’t get their prize, which may be just the case for one lucky or not-so-lucky Maritimer.
A winning Atlantic Lotto ticket worth $1-million sold in our region is about to expire.
“We have a $1-million, top-prize winning, Atlantic 649 ticket. It is from the October 12, 2011 draw and we are waiting for the lucky winner to come forward,” says Atlantic Lotto’s Lindsay Shannon.
Shannon says surprisingly a small number of winning tickets do go unclaimed. Last year Atlantic Lotto handed out $362-million in prizes across the region, but about $4.3-million weren’t claimed.
Shannon says if the winning ticket isn't claimed, the money isn’t entirely lost. Some goes into an unclaimed prize fund.
“We return it to players in the form of profits to our four shareholders, so those dollars go back to fund things like healthcare, roads, education.”
The expiry date on the ticket is Friday, October 12th but Atlantic Lotto says it will a two or three day grace period. After that, it will be null and void.
With files from CTV Atlantic's David Bell
