A little over a year ago, Ontario Lottery and Gaming (OLG) officials visited a Hamilton woman’s home with news amounting to the stuff of dreams.

Kathryn Jones was, they suspected, the rightful owner of a $50-million Lotto Max prize that had sat unclaimed for nearly a year. After months of investigating, the OLG traced the winning ticket back to her.

The OLG is making no such effort to find the owner of an unclaimed $1-million Lotto Max Maxmillions ticket, bought in Milton last Dec. 20 and set to expire in one week.

“There is no threshold to say that we’re going to look for someone for $50 million or $10,000 or whatever,” said OLG spokesperson Tony Bitonti.

Jones’ case was unique, he said: she was found in the course of another investigation, into a man who falsely laid claim to her winnings.

The OLG keeps track of the date, time and location of every ticket sold. The corporation knows if a ticket was paid for with cash or a card.

“The one thing we don’t know about the tickets,” said Bitonti, “are the actual customers.”

Jones bought her ticket at a Shoppers Drug Mart, he said, so there was surveillance video of her making the purchase that matched the time and location the winning ticket.

“We had to play the video because the gentleman (under OLG investigation) said, ‘it’s absolutely me,’ and in the video it wasn’t a he, it was a she.”

What’s more, Bitonti added, Jones left a paper trail: she bought her ticket with a credit card.

“We usually don’t go and pull video footage until a claim is made,” said Bitonti. “That’s what we did with Kathryn Jones, we played the video because a claim was made that time.”

Bitonti couldn’t confirm if the OLG would hunt down and view video footage of the million-dollar ticket transaction, or if such footage exists.

“Because of the integrity around the games and the prize winning process, a limited number of people have that information.”

The OLG posts notifications of unclaimed winnings on their website. When a person claims a payout, he or she must undergo a “prize claim review,” even when they are in possession of the winning paper ticket.

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The review includes getting quizzed on details of the purchase the true ticket holder would know, such as: Did you play your kids birthday numbers? Do you usually get your tickets on the way home from work? Did you buy an Encore ticket?

Ultimately, said Bitonti, “We really do need the ticket holders to come forward.”

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